May Craig is a rocky island situated along the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

coast of

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, which had substantial ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. May Craig lies about one half mile (0.8 km) south of Newtonhill and a mile (1.6 km) northeast of the village of

Muchalls Muchalls is a small coastal ex-fishing village in Kincardineshire, Scotland, south of Newtonhill and north of Stonehaven. Muchalls is situated slightly north of a smaller hamlet known as the Bridge of Muchalls. At the western edge of Muchalls ...

. A small

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

of the same name lies three miles (five km) to the north-northeast.

Area history

The area to the west of May Craig was first inhabited by

Pict PICT is a graphics file format introduced on the original Apple Macintosh computer as its standard metafile format. It allows the interchange of graphics (both bitmapped and vector), and some limited text support, between Mac applications, an ...

ish peoples who left

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging geographically f ...

ic monuments along a

trackway Historic roads (or historic trails in the US and Canada) are paths or routes that have historical importance due to their use over a period of time. Examples exist from prehistoric times until the early 20th century. They include ancient track ...

known as the

Causey Mounth The Causey Mounth is an ancient drovers' road over the coastal fringe of the Grampian Mountains in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This route was developed around the 12th century Anno Domini, AD as the main highway between Stonehaven and Aberdeen, a ...

, a name coined in

medieval times In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and t ...

. Examples of these megaliths are

Old Bourtreebush Auld Bourtreebush is a large Neolithic stone circle near Portlethen in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is also known as Old Bourtree Bush or Old Bourtreebush. This megalithic construction is situated very close to the recumbent stone circle at Aquhort ...

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of megalithic standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially Stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being ...

and Aquhorthies stone circle. Historic structures in the general area include

Elsick House Elsick House is a historic house in Kincardineshire, North-East Scotland. It is situated in an agricultural area about two miles from the North Sea near the town of Newtonhill; the Elsick Estate is situated within the watershed of the Burn ...

, Gillybrands and

Muchalls Castle Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well-preserved Romanesque, double-groined 13th-century tower house structure, built by the Frasers o ...

.Archibald Watt, ''Highways and Biways around Kincardineshire'', Stonehaven Heritage Society (1985)

References

{{Aberdeenshire-stub Islands of Scotland Landforms of Aberdeenshire

Area history

See also

References