Huntly Market Square Symbol Stone and Standing Stone Huntly, Scotland

Text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

The monument comprises the remaining members of a group of 6 standing stones, one of which is decorated with a weathered symbol. The monument was scheduled in 1935, but the documentation was defective, and is remedied by the present rescheduling.

The 2 standing stones that survive set into the ground on the N side of the Square in Huntly are all that remain of the Standing Stanes of Strathbogie, which are recorded as having at one time comprised 6 stones forming a circle, 40-50 ft (12.2-15.25m) in diameter. There is a record of a court being held at the Stones in 1557, and in 1594 they were the rendezvous point for the Earls of Argyll, Huntly and Errol on the eve of the Battle of Glenlivet. All but 3 were removed when the Duke of Richmond's statue was erected in 1862, the third (now lost) having survived for a while close by a house flanking the E side of the S half of the Square.

The 2 surviving stones stand adjacent to the N side of the base of the Duke of Richmond's statue. The eastern stone is an irregular block of whinstone (1 x 0.76 x 0.45m), decorated with an incised horse-shoe symbol, which is now virtually indistinguishable.

The scheduled monument comprises only the 2 stones themselves, as indicated in red on the accompanying map extract.