Nine Stones Close

Nine Stones Close

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Location in Derbyshire
Location	Derbyshire
Coordinates	53°09′38″N 1°39′52″W / 53.1604574°N 1.6644407°W / 53.1604574; -1.6644407Coordinates: 53°09′38″N 1°39′52″W / 53.1604574°N 1.6644407°W / 53.1604574; -1.6644407
Type	Stone circle
History
Periods	Bronze Age

Nine Stones Close, also known as the Grey Ladies, is a Bronze Age stone circle located near Youlgreave in Derbyshire. It sits within a local prehistoric landscape that includes Bronze Age barrows and settlement enclosures, and is part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread throughout much of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages, over a period between 3300 and 900 BCE. The purpose of the monument is unknown, although archaeologists have speculated that the stones represented supernatural entities.

Description[]

The monument, showing the four stones that remain

Nine Stones Close is a small stone circle on the edge of Harthill Moor in Derbyshire, 1½ miles southeast of Youlgreave.^[1] It sits within a rich prehistoric landscape that includes Bronze Age barrows and settlement enclosures.^[2] Excavations in 1847, 1877 and 1939 found flints and pot-sherds that date the monument to the Bronze Age.^[2]

Removed upright in field gate

The circle once measured 13.7 metres in diameter.^[1] As of 1847, there were seven stones recorded as part of the circle,^[1] although by the early 21st century only four remained:^[1][2] these are the largest to be found in any stone circle in Derbyshire.^[3] One of the stones was removed in the 18th century and is now used as an oversized field gatepost nearby.^[2] Another long, prostrate stone lies in a field 230 metres to the north-west.^[1] The remaining upright stones are now set in concrete bases.^[1]

From the stone circle, the major southern moon can be setting between the two boulders of the local landmark of Robin Hood's Stride at midsummer.^[3] Burl suggested that this alignment may have been the reason for the deliberate placement of the circle.^[1]

Folklore[]

The site is also named the Grey Ladies.^[4] In 1947, Heathcote suggested that this was not an example of folklore emerging from within the oral culture of the local community, but rather had been invented by "early guidebook writers".^[5]

It is uncertain whether there were originally nine stones, one theory being that nine is a corruption of 'noon', said to be the time when, according to local folklore, fairies would gather at the site to dance.^[6]

Historical context[]

While the transition from the Early Neolithic to the Late Neolithic in the fourth and third millennia BCE saw much economic and technological continuity, there was a considerable change in the style of monuments erected, particularly in what is now southern and eastern England.^[7] By 3000 BCE, the long barrows, causewayed enclosures, and cursuses that had predominated in the Early Neolithic were no longer built, and had been replaced by circular monuments of various kinds.^[7] These include earthen henges, timber circles, and stone circles.^[8] Stone circles exist in most areas of Britain where stone is available, with the exception of the island's south-eastern corner.^[9] They are most densely concentrated in south-western Britain and on the north-eastern horn of Scotland, near Aberdeen.^[9] The tradition of their construction may have lasted 2,400 years, from 3300 to 900 BCE, the major phase of building taking place between 3000 and 1300 BCE.^[10]

These stone circles typically show very little evidence of human visitation during the period immediately following their creation.^[11] The historian Ronald Hutton noted that this suggests that they were not sites used for rituals that left archaeologically visible evidence, but may have been deliberately left as "silent and empty monuments".^[12] The archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson argues that in Neolithic Britain, stone was associated with the dead, and wood with the living.^[13] Other archaeologists have proposed that the stones might not represent ancestors, but rather other supernatural entities, such as deities.^[12]

Nine Stones Close in its current landscape context

Across eastern Britain—including the East Midlands—stone circles are far less common than in the west of the island, possibly due to the general scarcity of naturally occurring stone here. There is much evidence for timber circles and earthen henges in the east, suggesting that these might have been more common than their stone counterparts.^[14] In the area of modern Derbyshire, there are five or six known stone circles although the remains of many ring-cairns, a different style of prehistoric monument, are also common and can look much like the stone rings.^[15] Stylistically, those found in this county are similar to those found in Yorkshire.^[15] Within the Peak District, nine was frequently favoured as the number of stones used in a circle.^[16] The only large stone circles in the Peak are Arbor Low and The Bull Ring, both monuments which combine a stone circle with an earthen henge and which are located on the sandstone layers.^[16] There are also a few smaller stone circles, including Doll Tor, that are close to the limestone edge.^[17]

References[]

Footnotes[]

Bibliography[]

• Burl, Aubrey (2000). The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08347-7.
• Burl, Aubrey (2005). A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11406-5.
• Grinsell, Leslie V. (1976). Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain. London: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-7241-6.
• Hutton, Ronald (2013). Pagan Britain. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-19771-6.

External links[]

Media related to Nine Stones, Derbyshire at Wikimedia Commons

• Nine Stones Close at The Modern Antiquarian
• Nine Stones Close at The Megalithic Portal