A village in an Aberdeenshire parish of the same name, Rhynie lies between Ord Hill and the Water of Bogie, 14 miles (22 km) northwest of Alford. A former market centre, the village was also known as Muir of Rhynie. In the old kirkyard of Rhynie three Pictish symbol stones dating from the 6th-7th Century AD are to be found. Two more Pictish stones stand in the village square and at the entrance to the school is a cast of the Rhynie Man taken from a stone now located at Woodhill House, Aberdeen. A mile (2 km) to the northwest, on the Tap o' Noth (564 m / 1849 feet) there is a spectacular hill-fort occupied on at least two occasions between the 1st millennium BC and the early 1st millennium AD.
The Old Red Sandstone of Rhynie has provided some exceptionally well-preserved fossil plants and animals representing the early colonisation of the land in the Devonian period of geological time. These include the primitive Rhynia, one of the earliest land plants dating from around 410 million years ago. These were preserved as a chert by a silica-rich volcanic hot spring and described by Robert Kidston and William Henry Lang 1917-21. The rocks are now protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
