Maiden Stone

The name is derived from local legend, incorporating the most obvious mark of wear and tear on the stone: a triangular notch toward the top of the monument.

The legend states that the daughter of the Laird of Balquhain made a bet with a stranger that she could bake a bannock faster than he could build a road to the top of Bennachie.

The legend finishes by saying that God turned her to stone, but the notch is where the Devil grasped her shoulder as she ran.

[citation needed] The stone is red granite, standing 3.01m high (one of the tallest of all Pictish monuments, even though several centimetres have been lost at the top owing to weathering).

Below the cross there is a square panel with a disc containing a Celtic spiral motif at its centre, surrounded by a key-patterned ring, with knotwork patterns infilling the corners.