33-399: Easter Aquhorthies stone circle , located near Inverurie in north-east Scotland, is one of the best-preserved examples of a recumbent stone circle and one of the few that still have their full complement of stones and the only one that has all its stones still standing without having been re-erected. It stands on a gentle hill slope about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Inverurie and consists of
66-657: A circuitous route eastwards past Corgarff Castle , through Strathdon and the Howe of Alford before entering the North Sea just north of Old Aberdeen . The chief tributaries are Conrie Water , Ernan Water , Water of Carvie, Water of Nochty, Deskry Water, Water of Buchat, Kindy Burn, Bucks Burn , Mossat Burn, Leochel Burn and the River Ury . The river was recorded by the 2nd century AD cosmographer Ptolemy of Alexandria (d. c 168) as Δηουανα Devona , meaning 'goddess', an indication
99-532: A metre higher than previously at 5.5 metres (18 ft). The resultant flooding forced residents along the river to evacuate their homes, in some cases with the help of local rescue teams. Areas affected included Port Elphinstone, Kintore , and Donside in Aberdeen where a number of residential care homes were evacuated as a precaution. Strathdon attracts visitors for salmon and trout fishing as well as its castles and scenery. A 100kW hydro scheme at Tillydrone
132-667: A nearby hillside the Easter Aquhorthies stone circle dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. On the outskirts of the town the Brandsbutt Stone is a class I Pictish symbol stone with an ogham inscription. There have been three well known battles in the town: The Battle of Inverurie (1308) , the Battle of Harlaw (1411) between Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles (MacDonald) and an army commanded by Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar ; and
165-425: A notable visit in 2017, where students engaged in various cultural activities, culminating in a ceilidh that celebrated Scottish and French traditions. These exchanges encourage language learning and community bonding between the two towns. Fiona Peebles was a key figure in the twinning relationship between Inverurie, Scotland, and Bagnères-de-Bigorre, France. She was instrumental in fostering cultural exchanges, and
198-456: A ring of nine stones, eight of which are grey granite and one red jasper . Two more grey granite stones flank a recumbent of red granite flecked with crystals and lines of quartz . The circle is particularly notable for its builders' use of polychromy in the stones, with the reddish ones situated on the SSW side and the grey ones opposite. The discovery of a possible cist covered by a capstone at
231-480: A roundel, was built around the circle some time between 1847 and 1866–7. The circle was subsequently brought to wider public attention in the 1870s and 1880s by a series of paintings, drawings, and descriptions, though some were far-fetched, such as Christian Maclagan 's reconstruction of the circle as a kind of broch . In 1884, it attracted the attention of the archaeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers , and five years later his assistants William Tomkin and Claude Gray visited
264-484: A single low stone on the NNE side with the tallest stones, the flankers, opposite on the SSW side. The flankers are each about 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) high, while the recumbent is 3.8 metres (12 ft) long by 1.4 metres (4.6 ft) high. It is aligned so that its level top lines up with the southern moonset in the direction of the nearby Hill of Fare. Two other large stones support the recumbent at right angles, projecting into
297-533: Is Aberdeen Airport at Dyce . Port Elphinstone railway station was a freight depot in Port Elphinstone; it is now disused. A bypass opened on 7 December 1990 and the A96 was rerouted to use the new road. Inverurie Academy is the main secondary school in the town. River Don, Aberdeenshire The River Don ( Scottish Gaelic : Abhainn Dheathain ) is a river in north-east Scotland . It rises in
330-591: Is St Andrew's Parish Church, part of The Church of Scotland which was founded as the "Kirk of Rocharl" by the Culdee monks in the 9th century. Inverurie Loco Works F.C. , who play their matches at Harlaw Park, are the local Highland League football team. Inverurie Boxing Club, an amateur boxing club located in Kintore. The club was started in 2017 and has since then acquired its own premises and has had multiple Scottish novice and district champions Colony Park F.C. are
363-580: Is said to have been founded by David, Earl of Huntingdon , brother of Malcolm IV , in the late 12th century. The religious foundation pre-dates this by five centuries with the establishment of the Kirk of Inverurie now known as St Andrew's Parish Church. However, the town's earliest known charter dates from 1558, with its modern development taking place after the building of the Aberdeenshire Canal linking Port Elphinstone with Aberdeen Harbour in 1806. On
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#1733092657525396-526: Is served by Inverurie Hospital . Some Inverurie natives speak the Aberdeenshire Doric dialect of Scots , as well as Scottish English. The council's 2016 population survey estimated a population of 13,480 of which 90.0% spoke primarily English at home, 4.9% Scots and 1.5% Polish. However, 51% of residents reported being proficient in the Scots language. Historically, Pictish is the ancient language of
429-641: Is so called due to the proximity of the former Aberdeenshire Canal which ran from Inverurie to Aberdeen . The word "Inverurie" comes from the Scottish Gaelic Inbhir Uraidh meaning 'confluence of the Ury' after the river which joins the Don just south of the town. In the 19th century, with the increased use of the postal service, many letters addressed to "Inverury" were being sent to " Inverary " in Argyll , on
462-572: The Battle of Inverurie during the Jacobite rising of 1745 . The House of Aquahorthies is at Burnhervie on the edge of Inverurie, built around 1797. The house served as a clandestine major seminary until after Catholic Emancipation in 1829, and since then it has been a private family home. During the Second World War , Luftwaffe planes would have been seen several times, due to the Blitz against
495-512: The Grampians and flows eastwards, through Aberdeenshire , to the North Sea at Aberdeen . The Don passes through Alford , Kemnay , Inverurie , Kintore , and Dyce . Its main tributary , the River Ury , joins at Inverurie . The Don rises in the peat flat beneath Druim na Feithe , and in the shadow of Glen Avon , before flowing quietly past the ice-age moraine and down to Cock Bridge, below
528-623: The 20th century; George Browne recorded that when he visited in 1920 it was "filled with a forest of whin bushes as high as our heads". It was scheduled as an ancient monument by the Ministry of Works in 1925, and was taken into guardianship by the State in 1963. The stones were cleaned in 1985 so that casts could be taken of them for an exhibition in Edinburgh , revealing previously undetected subtleties in their colouring. Further investigations also revealed that
561-516: The Thainstone Business Park, discovered the remains of: a Scottish Middle Bronze Age (1550–1150 BC) roundhouse and a urned cremation cemetery; Scottish Late Bronze Age (1150–800 BC) cremation practices; and an Iron Age roundhouse and souterrain from the 1st/2nd century AD, indicating human occupation in the area for thousands of years. An excavation in 2002 uncovered the remains of another Iron Age roundhouse. The Bass of Inverurie
594-543: The area, which can be found in many place names. It appears to have been a Brythonic language, but its classification remains uncertain. Pictish was eventually replaced by Scottish Gaelic in the area, and evidence of the language is found both in words in the Doric and in place names, such as Inverurie itself. The Book of Deer originates from the village of Old Deer , a few miles to the north east. The oldest church in Inverurie
627-436: The centre of the circle indicates that there may once have been a cairn there, but only a conspicuous bump now remains. The ring of stones is not quite circular and has a somewhat "squashed" aspect, measuring 18.4 metres (60 ft) along a WNW–ESE axis by 18.1 metres (59 ft). As is the case with other recumbent stone circles in the region, opposing pairs of stones have been erected on each side, increasing in height from
660-457: The circle. The placename Aquhorthies derives from a Scottish Gaelic word meaning "field of prayer", and may indicate a "long continuity of sanctity" between the Stone or Bronze Age circle builders and their much later Gaelic successors millennia later. The circle's surroundings were landscaped in the late 19th century, and it sits within a small fenced and walled enclosure. A stone dyke, known as
693-593: The confluence of the rivers Ury and Don , about 16 miles (26 km) north-west of Aberdeen . Inverurie is in the strath of the River Don at the centre of Aberdeenshire and is known locally as the Heart of the Garioch . It sits between the River Don and the River Ury and is only 10 miles (16 km) from the imposing hill of Bennachie . The town centre is triangular and is dominated by Inverurie Town Hall built in 1863. In
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#1733092657525726-582: The middle of the 'square' (as it is known locally) is the Inverurie and District War Memorial, capped by a lone Gordon Highlander looking out over the town. The main shopping areas include the Market Place and West High Street which branches off from the centre towards the more residential part of the town. South of the River Don is the village of Port Elphinstone , which is part of the Royal Burgh of Inverurie and
759-614: The mill at Thainstone in March 2009, paper manufacture . The Great North of Scotland Railway constructed its locomotive construction and repair works on a 15-acre (61,000 m ) site at Inverurie. Coombes, a small sweet shop, was famed as being the oldest family-owned business in Scotland until the death of Colin Coombes in 1957 whereupon the business closed. The bakery chain JG Ross is headquartered in
792-586: The nearby city of Aberdeen but Inverurie itself was not bombed. The Inverurie Locomotive Works , which closed in 1969, led to a modest increase in size and prosperity, but much of the growth came from the " Oil boom " in 1970s. Inverurie, Scotland, was officially twinned with the French town Bagnères-de-Bigorre on 15 October 2016. This partnership fosters cultural exchanges, particularly through educational initiatives like those involving Inverurie Academy. The connection has seen visits from French students, including
825-598: The picturesque site of the recently demolished Delnadamph Lodge . Several streams, the Dhiver, Feith Bhait, Meoir Veannaich, Cock Burn and the Allt nan Aighean merge to form the embryonic Don. Water from the north of Brown Cow Hill ( grid reference NJ230045 ) drains into the Don, while water from the west side runs into the River Spey and that from the south side into the Dee . The Don follows
858-473: The ring had noteworthy acoustic properties, though it is unclear whether this was the case before the demolition of the central cairn and the construction of the roundel (which may have re-used the cairn's stones). Inverurie Inverurie / ɪ n . v ə ˈ r ʊər i / ( Scottish Gaelic : Inbhir Uraidh or Inbhir Uaraidh , 'mouth of the River Ury ') is a town in Aberdeenshire , Scotland at
891-558: The river was once a sacred one. Near Kintore, not distant from the Don, is the Deers Den Roman Camp . In 1750 the Don's lower reaches were channelled towards the sea, moving its confluence with the sea northwards. River levels and flows have been measured along the course of the Don at a number of gauging stations since 1969. The lowest of these is the gauge at Parkhill near Dyce , with a mean flow of 20.64 cubic metres per second (729 cu ft/s). The station measures 97% of
924-452: The site to measure, document, and photograph it in order to build a scale model (which is now part of the collection of The Salisbury Museum in Wiltshire ). In 1900, Coles found the circle "in an excellent state of preservation", protected from damage by cattle and without shrubbery growing around. He carried out a very careful survey. The circle became badly overgrown in the first quarter of
957-536: The total 1,312 square kilometres (507 sq mi) catchment of the river. Prior to 2016 the maximum levels and flows were recorded during the floods of November 2002, with peak levels on the 22nd of that month reaching 5.07 metres (16.6 ft) at Haughton near Inverurie, and 4.17 metres (13.7 ft) at Parkhill. These were exceeded in January 2016 during the 2015–16 floods , when levels at Haughton reached 5.6 metres (18 ft), whilst those at Parkhill were over
990-518: The town's juvenile team, founded by Dod Reid MBE in 1978. Garioch RFC , based at Kellands Park, play Rugby Union. Inverurie has an hourly internal bus service as well as some out of town services, including to Aberdeen – most (but not all) are provided by Stagecoach Bluebird . The town lies on the A96 road and is served by Inverurie railway station on the Aberdeen to Inverness Line . The nearest airport
1023-467: The town. Agriculture continues to be a mainstay of Inverurie's economy, as it has done since the town's inception. The Thainstone Centre, to the south east of the town, is a large livestock market, which rents out commercial units to various agricultural support services, oil industry storage yards and vehicle hire companies. A 98,000 sq ft (9,100 m ) retail park opened in June 2009. The town
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1056-477: The west coast of Scotland. The town council ordained that the name to be used for council business should be "Inverurie" which they also regarded as being the "ancient spelling". They asked the public to use this spelling in future and said that the Postmaster General had accepted the change. The town clerk made the official announcement on 20 April 1866. Excavations by archaeologists in the summer of 2018 at
1089-407: Was involved in initiatives such as student exchanges and community events. Both towns mourned her death in 2023, as she had had a lasting impact on their twinning partnership. Inverurie is a market town , now with a monthly Farmer's Market, with many small shops, businesses and services. Its main industries other than service and commerce are agriculture, oil and, until International Paper closed
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