The Lang Stane (stone in English) is a sight you will miss if you are not told about it.

I found no mention of the stone in any of the tour books or pamphlets I read. There is a lot of information available about distilleries, castles and historic buildings but not a word about the wee piece of Scottish history known as the Lang Stane.

I was lucky enough to have had my cousin Pamela Gaull mention the stone during a visit over coffee one day during my recent trip to Aberdeen, Scotland.

When I told Pamela that we were staying at the Bauhaus Hotel (an absolutely fabulous hotel and highly recommended) on Langstane Place in Aberdeen, Pamela asked if I had seen the Lang Stane. Seen it? I had never heard of it!

With a little bit of surfing on Google, I was able to determine that this ancient stone was located somewhere at a corner of a crossroad with the short street the hotel was on. One morning during a walk in the seemingly ever persistent light rain, I found it. But be assured that if I wasn’t looking for the Lang Stane, I would not have noticed it.

Tucked neatly into a tiny alcove of a building at the north-west corner of Langstane Place and Dee Street rests the Lang Stane.

The Lang Stane. Photo by Ian Hadden, May 4, 2015

There is not much known about the stone other than it is made of granite, appropriate enough given it’s location in the ‘Granite City.’ It appears to have been a boundary marker at some point given it’s pointed or “keel shaped” base and, may have been part of a stone circle which could possibly date it back to about 3000 B.C. Whatever it’s past, the Lang Stane is a part of Aberdeen and Scottish history, sadly an ancient relic ignored by most passersby.