On the Road to Find Out

This year Lightning's football team trains every Sunday morning over at the Port, which thanks to online church, he is actually able to attend.

This morning while he was training, the rest of us embraced the 'warm' and sunny weather and explored the old canal / mill lade area at the back of Port Elphinstone, an area we have driven and cycled past on the rode but never had the notion to really explore on foot.  

The Port itself took its name, and during 1807-54 derived its importance, from being situated at the north west end of the former Aberdeen Canal.  The terminus area came to be knows as Port Elphinstone after Sir James Elphinstone, who was a keen supported and financier of the canal.  But by 1854 the canal was drained and bought by the Great North of Scotland Railway to lay their track.

On our meanderings near the old paper mill we unexpectedly came across a carved Pictish stone and the Broomhead of Crichie stone circle - or at least that's what we discovered it was called afterwards.

This Class I Pictish symbol stone is not actually part of the original Crichie Stone Circle but was found about 50 meters away and re-erected here in the centre of the henge in about 1850 to preserve it.  The carvings date from the seventh century and are of two of the classic Pictish symbols: a 'Pictish beast' (sometimes called an elephant) above, and a crescent and V-rod below.  The carvings are not particularly clear on my photo, but in the pictures below they are definitely more obvious:

It was quite a fun find, and just goes to show that there is always more to discover in your local area than you think!