Rhynie is an area steeped in history boasting a magnificent Iron Age, vitrified hillfort, Tap o’Noth, that dominates the landscape. Tap o’Noth overlooks Neolithic standing stones with cup marks; enigmatic Pictish symbol stones and settlements; places of vicious Clan rivalries; the birthplace of Victorian Missionaries; a first class WW1 monument highlighting the disasters of the pal’s regiment policy; 480 million year old unique fossils called Rhynie Chert containing some of the first complex life forms to colonise the earth.

One can only imagine what Rhynie once was in times past. What we can surmise is that the people who lived here were sophisticated traders and travellers and not that very different from the folks who live here now. This website endeavours to explore that connectivity between the past and the present in terms of Rhynie’s people and landscape: imagining the past and documenting its artefacts, exploring the present and recording the stories, objects, edible plants and people of Rhynie today.

Rhynie Woman was set up in 2013 as a reaction to archaeologists from Aberdeen University visiting the village annually. Their first inclination was to set up a pop-up museum/souvenir shop/café as a hub to connect the archaeologists with the community and with visitors.

Rhynie Woman is an artist collective with very diverse and eclectic talents. Our aim is to enhance our community by raising awareness for our landscape and its history, shaping Rhynie as an attractive place for local residents and visitors to the area. We’ve achieved this in many ways; creating a foraging cookbook; producing a Rhynie Man calendar; hosting and feeding visiting archaeologists; organising ceilidhs; writing music; inviting fellow artists to do workshops; fireworks on Tap o’Noth; creating bespoke food and drink from foraged ingredients and much more.