MEGALITHIC SITES IN DERBYSHIRE, Sunday 1 October 2000

It was a splendid early-autumn day for megalith enthusiasts to be on the moors of the Peak District. After early-morning fog the morning was sunny, and the sky clouded over only after 1.30 p.m. And before the predicted rain started we had all dispersed and were on the way home after a great day.

The party which numbered about 20 adults included Tim Prevett, Chris Jones (Rescue Archaeology), Chris Tweed, Andy and Ruth Burnham, Tom Bullock, Eileen Grimshaw, Jenny Blain, Sarah Seymour, David Dickens, Louise Maskill and partner Tom, John Colby, Don (from Sheffield) and Terence Meaden, among others.

Many had been on similar outings during the previous 12 months in the South of England. For me it was the tenth of these group outings, and required a drive of 199 miles that morning to get there from Wiltshire.

The number included several who were familiar with Peak District megalithic sites and were glad to pass on their knowledge, not only about megaliths but also mega-mushrooms. The season was ready for ripe mushrooms of field, moor and forest, many of them good edible ones, like the common mushroom and Jenny's chanterelles from the conifer plantation at Doll Tor. There were plenty of fly agaric about too, especially on Stanton Moor near Nine Ladies.

The previous evening a smaller meeting had taken place at The Vaults pub in Wirksworth. Tom Bullock demonstrated his splendid CD Rom photographic tour of stone-circle sites in Britain and Ireland. This continues to be available for purchase at £20 post-free for Stones-listers.

Assembly on Sunday was at NGR SK 227 618, a spot near the craggy millstone-grit peak called Robin Hood's Stride. A gentle walk up to these rocks and we could see the standing stones of Nine Stones Close in a field 800 metres away to the north (SK 226 626). A few minutes later and we were admiring the four survivors of this once-perfect site. Additional megaliths lay not far off by a northern wall in the same field and a couple of megaliths had been built into or lay close to a southern wall.

The standing stones were high, the tallest way over 2 metres and very attractive. From the west and from the east its outline was isosceles triangular. From the south the top of the stone was marked by a series of parallel vertical grooves in a fashion that is repeated by the neighbouring peak of Robin Hood's Stride and will be familiar to specialists who know the Devil's Arrows at Boroughbridge. This was the finest standing megalith seen that day.

Returning to Robin Hood's Stride several of us climbed to the top of this pretty rock. Tim Prevett and others then led us through wooded slopes to the cave beneath Cratscliff Rocks once occupied by a mediaeval hermit (SK 227 625).

For lunch most of the company retired to a nearby pub, but, as the sun was still shining strongly and I had previously seen Arbor Low only in poor-weather conditions, I drove the 10 minutes needed to reach the farm at Arbor Low. The site is managed by English Heritage while still owned by the farm, and the entry charge is 50 p for adults and 25 p for children. The big stone circle and henge attain a diameter of nearly 95 metres, but unfortunately all the limestone megaliths have fallen either on to their backs or their fronts and some are broken. Several stones are of considerable technical interest and I shall write about them later. Despite the stiff wind which was blowing over this exposed hilltop, visitors were numerous during the hour I was there, and a couple of dozen sat upon the fallen cove stones munching their lunch -- as I briefly did too.

About 2 p.m. the Megalith Group were reuniting along the Birchover Road ready for the next ancient site, the diminutive circle and cairn known as Doll Tor (SK 237 628). This site is in a conifer plantation, but this is a real shame and it would be better if the trees in that small area were felled. When inspected by the first antiquarians nearly two centuries ago four small megaliths were standing and two had fallen. The spaces in between were occupied by small stones. Tangent to the stone circle was a vast wrecked cairn of quite big diameter. In 1993 inspectors found that unknown persons had erected a large number of lesser megaliths around the perimeter of Doll Tor Stone Circle. This led the conservators to restore the stone ring as correctly as they could --- which meant that when they finished their work the right six megaliths stood around the circumference. On our visit we glumly noted that there was candle wax spilt down the sides of three of the stones, and inside the circle a large square of flattened, faded grass, with holes at the corners, indicated that somebody had camped there. We stayed for over half-an-hour, and by the time we had reached the road again, passing the Andle or Oundel Stone (SK 240 630) on the way, it was gone 3 o'clock.

To end the day we could have crossed the road and walked up hill past the Cork Stone and directly over Stanton Moor to the several remaining Neolithic/Bronze Age sites. Instead, in order to get as near as possible by car (easier for children) to Nine Ladies Stone Circle, the convoy drove up through Stanton-in-the-Peak and round to the north-east and parked in Lees Road (at SK 246 642). From there it was a pretty walk along a sandy path through birch trees to the last of the day's true stone circles at SK 248 635: Nine Ladies, or Stanton Moor II. The stones, quite short, stand in a glade, with a special appeal of their own. The little King's Stone 40 metres to the south-west was knocked over a few years ago by a warden's Range Rover, and is so loose as almost to make it a miniature logan stone. Sad to say three or four of the stones of Nine Ladies had pieces chipped off, i.e. recently vandalised.

A hundred metres farther to the SSW, out of the wood and amid deep bracken, is a cairn at the centre of an embanked circle, 16 metres across, called Stanton Moor III. (SK 247 633). The perimeter of the circle is an earthen stone-filled bank. The number 56 is inscribed on an entrance stone at the south-west. Several other cairns and cists were spotted too as the remaining group of enthusiasts continued southwards until Stanton Moor IV was located. This is another embanked circle-cairn, of similar size to the other but different in being wholly overgrown with bracken. The number 43 has been cut into one of its bigger stones. In the near distance the Cork Stone could be seen again.

So the day ended, high on Stanton Moor, the scene of the quarry that we are told the nation needs. A 40-year programme of destruction has been proposed, in which almost all the prehistoric sites would disappear, while leaving Nine Ladies safe though rather near to a newly-created cliff. Does the nation want this, or is it a multi-national profiteer who wants it? There's an awful lot of stone in them thar hills without choosing a rich prehistoric and sacred landscape for the purpose. Do visit http://www.savestanton.freeserve.co.uk/home.htm to learn about the Nine Ladies Anti Quarry Campaign.

Lastly we offer our best thanks to Tim and the others for helping to make it such a great day. Terry.