Swans at Berrybrae



Inspired by 'Great Crowns of Stone' by Adam Welfare, and determined to make the most of an exceptionally beautiful morning, Grey Granite decided to visit Berrybrae  recumbent stone circle. This late example of a recumbent stone circle originally consisted of 10 stones, all local granite  but now much diminished. They are now rather overgrown and several are difficult to see clearly under the brambles and willow herb.
.

Aptly named Berrybrae, the hedge round the field was heavy with ripe hawthorn berries which in turn were heavy with assorted gorging tits and finches



Typical of stone circles in the improved Buchan landscape, Berrybrae is situated in a roundel of trees protected by a low dyke. The 19th century dyke, alas, is likely to have been constructed from stones robbed from the central cairn. Aubrey Burl, who excavated the site in 1975, suggests that, even in the 2nd millennium BC, there were fertile patches of ground in Buchan and stone circles were erected close to them.



The massive boat shaped recumbent and flankers



Rufus considering the circle and attentively listening to the loud trumpeting of approaching swans

Suddenly and quite magically a whiteness of swans, wave after wave of them,  filled the sky over the circle, trumpeting loudly as they appeared to heading towards nearby Strathbeg. Grey granite has never seen such a large group of swans in flight.

The 'circle' is actually an oval about 23 metres by 19 metres. There is now no trace of the central cairn which contained fragments of burnt bone, indicating a funeral pyre dated to the 2nd millennium BC.

After leaving the circle Grey Granite and Rufus enjoyed a walk round the lanes linking Blackhills Farm, Belfatton and Cairnlob. This area was very quiet and peaceful, when ever the clamour of the geese and swans flying overhead ceased there was almost total silence. We saw a huge herd of swans grazing on a field of stubble, sentries poised with up stretched necks as the majority fed.

Burl postulates that around 1750 BC the ring was visited by folk who altered it by destroying the inner cairn and using the stones to create a continuous barrier linking the orthostats. Rufus is standing on the ring they created.