maiden s t. o n e. 
a 
HP HIS remarkable obelifk, figured at A A 2, ftands ere&ed on an eminence, 
A half way up the hill of Ben-a~chie, contiguous to a fmall Danijh fort, called 
The- Maiden Cajlle * . Ben-a-chie is a fleep and lofty mountain in the county of 
Marr, about twenty miles north of Aberdeen. 
This monument is moft elaborately carved; and, being a hard grey granite, of 
nearly fifteen feet in length, mud have been difficult to form; and the raffing of the 
ornaments, and various fculptures, fo accurately on it, mud have been the work of 
muc h perfeverance and care. Near to where it is inferted in the ground, the {tone 
originally has had a break; for the moulding runs in the direction of the fra&ure, 
an d fw ells again where the done begins to refume its breadth. 
It has from time immemorial been called 'The Maiden Stone ; and has, no doubt, 
’’cen eie£ted in memory of the lady who dw T elt in the contiguous tower, called The 
■Maiden Cajlle. 
That it has been placed in memory of a female is probable, becaufe there are no 
trophies of warlike atchievement, nor emblems of the chace, upon it : but at the 
00t ^ 2> diftinguifhed by two figures, which may reprefent a mirror and a 
comb. 
Mr. Gordon , in his Itinerarium Septentrzonale, as already quoted, has attempted 
to give a repreientation of this done, but with little care, and confequently little 
uccefs; for the refemblance of the figures is very inaccurately taken. And he has 
not even rifked a conje&ure concerning their import, which is the more remarkable, 
as he is diffidently diffufe on others lefs fingular than this. 
A A 2 is the fouth-ead, or front view of it. B B 2 the reverfe, which is covered 
ovei with waving ornaments, inclofing a crofs at the top ; fome of their turnings 
are confiderably elegant, as at B 2. The edges alfo of the obelifk are elaborately 
carved with well-difpofed mathematical figures ; the one in particular with a feries 
ot it. Andrew's erodes, inferibed in ovals, which have a rich and pleafant effeft. 
A boar, or fome refembling animal, feems chofen as the trophy at top, and under 
that a figure frequent on thefe monuments, which fhall be invedigated hereafter. 
In the third divifion D, is a remarkable form, like fome drange and uncouth ani- 
tfia . This hieroglyphic, whatever it import, is reprefented in one fhape or other 
on almod every one of thefe northern obelifks. The intention of the afiemblage of 
g res accompanying the Maiden Stone, is to exhibit at one view the variety of 
orms in which this emblem appears. 
• Itinerarium Septentrionale, p. 162, Plate $9. 
C is 
