Historic Scotland & National Trust for Scotland places in Aberdeenshire

A Pictish symbol stone of about AD 600 with a serpent, a crescent and a rare ogham inscription, standing among the houses of an Inverurie estate; free, open at all times, street parking.

Whitewashed 16th-century tower house turned Redcoat barracks after Culloden, ringed by a star-shaped musket wall below the Cairngorms; open April to September, adult £8.50, half price in the first EH year.

A Bronze Age circle of eight standing stones enclosing eight small cremation cairns, about 4,000 years old, in a valley near Garlogie west of Aberdeen; free, open at all times, a small car park beside it.

A remarkably complete Iron Age earth house beside the B9119 near Tarland, a curving stone-roofed passage about 14.5 metres long that can still be entered; free, open at all times, bring a torch.

The ruins of a Cistercian abbey founded in 1219 by the Earl of Buchan near Mintlaw, linked with the Book of Deer and the earliest Gaelic writing in Scotland; free, open 10:00 - 16:00.

William Adam's unfinished baroque mansion of 1735 at Banff, now a country house gallery with National Galleries paintings by El Greco, Gainsborough and Raeburn, and walks to the Bridge of Alvah; adult £11, half price in the first EH year.

One of Scotland's best-preserved recumbent stone circles, raised about 4,000 years ago on a hillside west of Inverurie with Bennachie behind, its red granite recumbent framed by grey flankers; free, open all year, small car park nearby.

A Z-plan Gordon tower house of 1590 at the foot of Glen Buchat in Strathdon, its door carved Nothing on earth remains but fame; free, closed and fenced for conservation, seen from its car park.

The Gordons' palace at the meeting of the Bogie and Deveron, from a 1190 motte to the 1st Marquis's French-inspired front of 1602 with its great round tower and heraldic doorway; adult £8.50, half price in the first EH year.

Extensive 13th-century courtyard castle of the Earls of Mar above the Back Den, besieged in 1306 and the birthplace of the 1715 Jacobite rising; open April to September, adult £8.50, half price in the first EH year.

The walls of a 13th-century mother church near Inverurie, with a carved sacrament house of 1524 and a knight's grave slab; free and open all year.

One of the finest recumbent stone circles of north-east Scotland, about 4,000 years old, beside a cremation cemetery on a hilltop near Daviot and Inverurie; free, open at all times, a short walk from a small car park.

A three-metre Pictish cross-slab of pink granite carved after AD 700 near Chapel of Garioch, with Jonah, a centaur and a mirror and comb, and a Devil legend; free, boxed for the winter from mid-October to April.

A massive burial cairn 25 metres across, about 4,000 years old, the last of three great cairns at Memsie near Fraserburgh; free, open at all times, roadside parking only.

A moated earth-and-timber castle mound of the 1200s near Lumphanan, visited by Edward I in 1296 and long linked with Macbeth; free, open at all times, a few spaces at the end of a farm track.

A 2 m Pictish symbol stone of about AD 600, carved with a serpent and Z-rods and still on its original site, in a field near Insch with a view to Dunnideer; free and open all year, over a stile.

A rare medieval parish church of about 1200 near Rhynie, its carved south doorway and early 16th-century sacrament house still in place; free, open at all times, roadside parking for a car or two.

A carved Renaissance tomb of 1589 for Sir William Forbes of Tolquhon and his wife, by the mason who built Tolquhon Castle, in Tarves kirkyard near Ellon; free, seen in its shelter all year.

Picturesque courtyard castle of the Forbes lairds near Tarves, rebuilt in 1584 to 1589 behind a showpiece twin-towered gatehouse; open April to September, adult £8.50, half price in the first EH year.

Recumbent stone circle on a hilltop near Tarland, used from about 2500 BC to the 1600s, with a Cold War observation post beside it and views to Lochnagar; free, open all year, car park on the B9094 a short walk below.

One of Scotland's largest tower houses, with a listening hole, secret stairs, a Raeburn and a walled garden that feeds the tearoom.

The pink Aberdeenshire tower house of 1626 said to have inspired Disney's Cinderella castle, seen by small guided tours.

16th-century Deeside tower house with painted ceilings, the Horn of Leys and a walled garden famous for its 1702 yew hedges.

One of Scotland's oldest tower houses on Deeside, held by the Irvines for 24 generations, with a 4,000-book library, rose garden and ancient oak wood.

800-year-old Aberdeenshire castle of five towers with Raeburn portraits, Edwardian interiors and a loch walk, seen by guided tour.

William Adam's Palladian house of 1732 with opulent Victorian interiors, the Gordon family's portraits and 85 castle paintings by James Giles.

Ten generations of one family's home and belongings, with a hillside garden, moon gate, rock garden and three woodland trails.

Britain's largest National Nature Reserve in the Cairngorms, with the Linn of Dee, fifteen Munros and a reborn Caledonian pinewood.

Re-created 17th-century walled garden with six miles of box hedging, 30,000 bedding plants, an apple orchard and the Museum of Farming Life.