Aikey Brae recumbent stone circle stands on Parkhouse Hill and overlooks the villages of Old Deer and Stuartfield. Back in the 1950s it was apparently completely surrounded by a conifer plantation. However these trees have now been cleared away from most of the hill so that the view across the recumbent has been opened up.  The circle originally consisted of ten uprights and the recumbent. All bar one of the uprights survive although many have fallen including the western flanker.



The circle is interesting as unlike other recumbent circles no traces of a ring cairn or cremated bones have been found within it. However the other typical features do seem to be present including the characteristic grading of the height of the uprights away from the flankers. There is also some evidence of a banking to level the site and this can be seen on the pictures.

The recumbent stone is very large and there are chocking stones visible underneath it that were used to manipulate the stone so that its upper surface was horizontal, that is if the obvious bump at the western end is ignored!



It is a shame that the western flanker has fallen as this would have made quite a spectacular setting.  In his field guide Aubrey Burl mentions that the recumbent is lined up on the moonset at lunar maximum.



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