Last lap! However our few days around the coast had failed to prepare us for the reality of February in mountains of Aberdeenshire away from the warmth of the sea! There was some frost and ice around at Crathes but there was more snow and more ice as we drove inland. The car park at Tomnaverie was quite icy and half of it was still covered in polished ice.

The car park at Tomnaverie was still very icy and half was packed, polished snow.

The path up to the circle was clear and easy to walk. We have been here before but it is always worth the quite short walk up to the top of the small hill to see the stone circle at the top. It is set on this small hill in the middle of a valley and with hills and mountains all around some of which are quite high. Recumbent Stone Circles are almost all found in the North East of Scotland, there are traces of at least 90 such circles but only a few are as well preserved and as dramatic as this one. The name comes from the fact that all these circles have one huge stone lying horizontally between two other upright stones. This circle is thought to have been built here in about 2,500BC.

Tomnaverie Stone Circle. Note the big recumbent stone on the far side.

We had a quiet but chilly night and the car park was still well frozen the next morning. We were moving at 10am on the last leg of this short trip.

We stopped for coffee beside the River Don which was very full and rushing along toward the sea at Aberdeen.

After a shopping stop at Keith which is a surprisingly interesting little town we were home by 3pm having done 400 kilometres in four days.

Tomnaverie and home