Dating back to the Bronze Age, around 4,000 years ago, the stone circle known as the ‘Nine Ladies’ stands in a clearing on Stanton Moor in the Derbyshire Peak District. It’s a place of myth and mystery, surrounded by clusters of ash, silver birch and beech trees.
The circle is approximately 11m in diameter and actually consists of ten stones, nine in a circle and the tenth, known as the ‘King Stone’, approximately 40m to the west.
According to popular legend, the stones are believed to represent nine ladies who were turned to stone for dancing on the Sabbath. The King Stone represents the fiddler who provided the music for their revelry.
The circle was constructed by the people who lived on and farmed in this area at the time, most probably as a site where they could celebrate and commemorate the most important moments of life and death in their community.
Stanton Moor
The whole of Stanton Moor is a significant place, and it’s a great place to walk, particularly when the summer heather is in bloom. The entire moor is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument because of its archeological importance; there are more than seventy burial barrows on the moor and four stone circles.
Please treat this ancient site with respect if you visit: leave only footprints, take only photographs, kill only time.
The Nine Ladies Stone Circle is on Stanton Moor, best accessed from Lees Road, Stanton in Peak, postcode DE4 2LS. There is no car park for the site but there is a small stretch of Lees Road 300 metres from Stanton in Peak near the easiest footpath to the stone circle where it is possible to park in an informal lay-by just off the road on the right hand side.
