Knock of Alves

The Knock of Alves is a small wooded hill that lies 3 miles (4.8 km) to the west of Elgin in Moray, Scotland, rising to 335 feet (102 m) above ordnance datum. Its summit is marked by York Tower, a 3-storey octagonal folly erected in 1827 to commemorate Prince Frederick, the Duke of York; and the Forteath Mausoleum, built in 1850 as the burial place of 7 members of the Forteath family of the nearby house of Newton. The hill is the site of a hill fort with evidence of both Iron Age and Pictish occupation. It is traditionally believed that there was an early Christian church, possibly Culdean, on top of the hill, though no traces of this have been found. On the south side of the hill, approximately 200 metres (660 ft) from York Tower and the summit, is a stone circle consisting of six boulders of up to 1.3 metres (4.3 ft) in height, arranged with an overall diameter of 10 metres (33 ft).