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The
image above is the begining or ending of the Grampian Mountains in NE Scotland.
Depending on which direction you are travelling from. This is the very Sacred
mountain of Bennachie!
Many legends surround this mountain from the Spirit Guardian Jock who is trapped
in the fiery
internal world of Bennachie, waiting for the local folk to find the key and
release him back into our hearts and our world,
to Giants throwing huge rocks at other Giants and creating Clag na Ben some
miles away, to the Guardian Spirit
taking pity on the tricked Pictish Chieftains daughter and turning her to stone
just before the Devil claimed her soul (see the Maiden stone image). However
also in the lands below
we find the Kingdom of the the Picts and the Lands of Marr before they moved
South to Angus.
Here in the shadow of Bennachie we find the Maiden Stone.On the top of Bennachie
we have
the Mither Tap or originally the Mither Pap or breast.
The inset photos are from this top and looking down from it.
One finds a massive Hill Fort on top, with many thousands of granite stones
being carried up this
bare, windy and inhospitable place to create this defensive position.
Starting from the left, Photo 1 is the stone walled entrance to the fort with
the bare granite top in the distance.
Photo 2 is looking over this entrance into the beautiful Aberdeenshire landscape
far below.
Photo 3 is taken from the base of the Mither Tap. No wonder it was called Pap/breast,
but the Victorians felt it not proper and changed it to Tap/top
Photo 4 is one of the Easter Aquorthies Recumbent
stone circle stones. When one is in the circle and looks over this standing
stone towards the Mither Tap
one finds that the shape of the top of the stone mimic's the outline of the
Mither Tap, brilliant.
Photo 5 is part of the huge Granite Tap itself. Solid granite rock smooth, rounded
and folded like it was clay.
What awesome power forged this ancient landscape to have some of the oldest
rock in the world
bare itself to the elements.
Lastly the main image is of the whole Bennachie range at sunset, with the Mither
Tap reaching to the night sky on the far right.