Rhynie is 45miles inland from Aberdeen. It's right on the line between two types of landscape: to the east of Rhynie is the farmland of Aberdeenshire; to the west are hills and moorland and forestry.

It's been an important place at least since Pictish times: there are several carved stones believed to be 1,300years old, and a mile to the north-west, on the Tap o' Noth (1849 feet) there is a strange old structure believed to be the remains of a 'vitrified fort'

(there is also a Rhynie in Easter Ross, near Tain, and another in Australia)