of Edinburgh, Session 1871 - 72 . 721 
accounting for name. 6. Several Druidical circles described. 
(Reporters—Rev. Dr Bisset, and Mr Jamieson of Ellon.) 
Braemar. —At head of Grlen Sluggan, several large erratics. These 
stand exactly on watershed or summit level. Near shooting- 
lodge there, a cluster of four or five immense angular granite 
boulders. They touch one another, and may be fragments of 
one enormous mass. The adjacent rock is quartz. These 
blocks situated at end of a long low ridge or mound, which 
extends from south extremity of Ben Avon Hills, and which 
strewn thickly over with great granite blocks. The mound 
composed of a mixed debris of earth and stones, and is appar¬ 
ently a moraine. The adjoining mountain of “ Cairn a 
Drochid ” is composed of quartz and granite. On top of it 
are large granite boulders, many of which situated on quartz 
rock. (Reporter—Mr Jamieson, Ellon, in letter to convener.) 
Chapel Gariocli .—Boulder, 19 x 15^ x 11^ feet, weighing about 250 
tons above ground. Height above sea 280 feet. Rests on 
drift. Longer axis E. and W. Legend, that thrown from 
Bennachie Hill to north-west. The rock of boulder differs 
from rocks adjoining. Kairns abound in parish. (Reporter— 
Rev. Gr. W. Sprott.) 
Cruden. —In Boddom Dean, a granite boulder called “ The Hang¬ 
ing Stone,” measuring 37 feet in circumference and 27 feet 
over it, resting on several small blocks of granite. Supposed 
to be Druidical. Half a mile east there is another of 20 tons. 
(Buchan’s Peterhead, published in 1819, and James Mitchell, 
Boddam.) Huge granite boulder, called “ The Grray Stone 
of Ardendraught,” broken up in 1777 to build walls of Parish 
Church. It was the stone on which u Hallow” fires* used to 
be lighted. (Jamieson, “ Geol. Soc. Jour.,” xiv. p. 525.) 
* “ Hallow ” fires were lighted on 31st October, and were called “ Saimh- 
theine.” The “ Beil-theine ” fires were lighted on 1st May. These prac¬ 
tices, formerly general in the Highlands of Scotland, were probably connected 
with the worship of the sun, whose departure in autumn, and return in spring, 
were signified by these rites. The Rev. Mr Pratt published an account of 
Buchan in the year 1858, and states (page 21), “ Hallow fires are still kindled 
on the eve of Ali Saints, by the inhabitants of Buchan—from sixty to eighty 
fires being frequently seen from one point.” ( Old Scat. Acct. of Scotland, 
vol. xi. p. 621, and vol. xii. p. 458.) 
