As many of our own members are sensitive to the issue of moving the Maiden Stone, set as she is by the side of one of our most ancient routeways - the old King's and Queen's Highway leading out of the Regality of the Garioch north to the Bishop's summer palace at Rayne and farther north into Pictish heartland, it is with trepidation that we again hear murmurings of cardboard replicas, of her being rescued for her own sake by transportation to southern climes, or, worst of all, just moved for convenience to a nearby visitor centre.

Our Maiden has stood for eleven centuries, rooted to the slopes of Bennachie, displaying her message for all to see, yet we, her foolish children, have forgotten how to read. When her pink granite faces were carved sometime in the 9th C AD, it is clear that Christianity was fast becoming the acceptable faith, as a large wheel cross, carved in relief, decorates the stone's west side; yet the ancient pagan symbols of shape-shifting man-horse, fire altar, dolphin (or "beast" ) and mirror and comb are strongly represented on the east facing sunrise side.If the stone was used, like Sueno's at Forres, to proclaim a Christian message to the subdued Picts, the message is clearly that Christianity was the new faith to be embraced, not as a smothering force, but as one sharing similarities with the Pictish pantheon: the wheel cross does after all, like the Mortlach Battle Stone, share space with the Pictish fish - the ultimate symbol of knowledge of the afterworld in the Pictish belief system. May not the incoming missionaries have been trying to say: we have the same ancestors and the same place to go after death - let us share our faith with you? Anthony Jackson. (author of Symbol Stones of Scotland,) considered by many to be the greatest Pictish anthropologist, once stated that our understanding of our Pictish heritage would only improve once we learned to use methods other than digging to reveal their secrets: he suggested that surprises might come from the dreamers - the artists, the linguists, the poets and the bards.

In recent months it has not been unusual to hear within the confines of Establishment-centred Historic Scotland, talk of the invaluable work of epigrahers - those who decipher carvings. Great Scot! Are we hearing things? Are alternative sources finally being used to help us understand our heritage? May we reasonably expect some of our treasures to be left undisturbed in the special Fen Shui of place chosen for them for reasons we are still too ignorant to understand? Artists, poets and dowsers have always seen what many others fail to see - that the stone and its setting are one; that to abstract one from the other is to destroy. Some dowsers actually feel physically sick in the presence of a re-erected stone.

Resurrected stones at Strichen (Buchan) and Badentoy (Kincardineshire) are marked examples. Even if one has no time for psychic ability, surely many of us see the play of light and shadow on stones in their original setting which must have been an important factor in their placement, and one which could never be duplicated in a museum, except with a computer-generated sun mechanism installed at tremendous cost.

Astronomers in Angus and Perthshire have for the last decade been providing the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) with a massive body of research on the siting of stones relative to their horizon and sun movement.

On the Maiden Stone the sun around noon dances a game of shadows first (ante meridian) with the shapes on the pagan side and the (post meridian) with the fish and the cross on the west face. Her name, too, fills philologists with bursting pride, because she has at least four etymologies (all possible, each presenting a new way of looking at her): from Gael. 1] Maoid-hean-prayer entreaty supplication; 2] Madiunn - morning; 3] Meadhon - mid, centre: 4] Mag (pron.mai) - dun : fort commanding an open plain. Fortunately Historic Scotland's work with scheduled monuments has been augmented by its National Committee on Carved Stones in Scotland ( c/o Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Queen Street, Edinburgh) and the official line is that in general "the least disruptive and lowest level of intervention is to be preferred".

The people of Forres supported Historic Scotland in the provision of a purpose-built glass shelter for Sueno's Stone, to its great enhancement.

Recently Ross-shire inhabitants did the same for the Shandwick Stones. Both Stones are, in common with the Maiden Stones, an integral part of their landscape and too large to move without major disruption.

Garioch residents have been calling for support in their plan to conserve the Maiden Stone with an enclosure for nearly 10 years, but have had their efforts stymied, particularly in the last seven by crossed wires from Grampian officials trying to solve the riddle of a Pitcaple bypass for the A96. Surely now is the time to consider the two HS successes and start the process of placing the Maiden's priceless symbols and animals in their own glass menagerie.

For further information on Friends of Grampian Stones check out the FOGS website www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~stones