[1] The missionary, teacher and chocolatier Alexander Murdoch Mackay was born in Rhynie on 13 October 1849.

The "Rhynie Man" now stands inside Woodhill House (the headquarters of Aberdeenshire Council) in Aberdeen.

Among the finds at the site were fragments of a late 5th- or 6th-century Roman amphora that must have been imported from the Mediterranean region.

This is the only known example of a Roman amphora from Eastern Britain dating to the post-Roman period, and indicates that the inhabitants of the settlement would have been of high status.

Archaeologists working at the excavation have speculated that the settlement may have been a royal site occupied by Pictish kings.