Lockdown Fun Part 1 - March Stone Hunting

 

A march stone. In case you have seen one and not known what it is.

As we were not allowed to venture too far from home under lockdown I started looking for some homegrown fun which doubled up as a Cosmic Hillbashers lockdown challenge. This included hunting down those tricky little march stones and some hard to find megaliths (thanks to Ewen for that suggestion). Once lockdown was lifted and we could travel further away march stones and megaliths were abandoned in favour of forays further afield however, due to Aberdeen being on the COVID naughty step and lockdown re-imposed once more, I’m beginning once again to see the attraction of hunting march stones. 

March stone set into the road outside Pittodrie. (The less said about the muppets in this place the better!) 

Fortunately, I did not exhaust my supply of march stones last time around by any stretch of the imagination so there are still plenty to be found.

Alpha Stone marks the start of the boundary line

Omega stone marks the end of the boundary line

The march stones - here's the history bit....

The ancient boundary to the city of Aberdeen was marked by a series of boundary stones also known as march stones with the term “march” originating from a 16^th century name for a boundary. Early boundary markers were most likely significant features such as trees and rivers and boulders or cairns but from 1525 onwards they began to become more standardised with some of them taking the form of “saucer stones”  and in some cases cairns were erected to mark the line of the marches but these cairns have not survived.

There are two sets of boundary stones, the inner boundary stones that mark the boundary of the Royal Burgh of Aberdeen as it was in Medieval times and the outer stones which mark what were called the Freedom Lands. After 1790 stones engraved with letters and numbers took the place of saucer stones and this style of march stone remains today.

The stones are engraved with the letters ABD for Aberdeen with the inner march stones also engraved with CR meaning city royalty. Contrary to popular opinion they are not marked with “COVID capital of Scotland – abandon hope all ye who enter”.

In recognition of the assistance he had received in establishing independence, in 1319 Robert The Bruce granted the city of Aberdeen custodianship over the Royal Forest of the Stocket which were hunting lands and the city then purchased three more areas which came to be called the Freedom Lands and these were Rubislaw, Cuives or Woodside and Gilcomstoun. The area of Hilton was also purchased but this did not form part of the Freedom Lands. In 1551 the city asked Mary Queen of Scots for the rights to rent land which became the estates of Countesswells, Foresterhill, Hazlehead and Kingswells.

A 1929 Map of the March Stones and Freedom lands of Aberdeen (ref https://aberdeenmarchstones.co.uk/)

The tradition of riding the Marches was basically the practice of riding the boundary lines to ensure that they were being maintained and observed and that no landowner was trying a sneaky little land grab. The riding was followed by a bit of a feast and a celebration, a tradition that still happens in the towns of the borders today.

Anyway I started out on my mission to collect these march stones but, like collecting megaliths, consumption dykes and trig points (more about these to follow) this is a work in progress however I’ve marked off a few city ones. A few other Cosmic hillbashers started on lockdown missions of their own to tick off march stones and the end product of this challenge were some truly dreadful "march stone selfies" for the Cosmics facebook page.

 

Worst selfie ever?

I think doing the whole march stone boundary route in a day would be quite a good expedition and achievable. It wouldn’t be that far in distance but it may not be that simple as some of these stones are quite well hidden and you need to know where to look. It might actually be one for winter time for when the plants and undergrowth have died back a bit as some are quite well hidden and maybe some route recces of the trickier sections in advance would pay off.

Probably passed by lots of times but not noticed by most

I had some help... *sigh*

Here's the link to the map and location of the stones if anyone is looking for something to do and wants to go March stone hunting. After all, God knows how much longer we are going to be in lockdown.

https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2019-04/Boundary%20Stones%20Trail.pdf