I’m in Buxton this weekend enjoying Novacon, but have also gone exploring around the countryside a bit (as I did last year).
On the outskirts of Buxton itself, you can find Poole’s Cavern, a cave supposedly once home to a local outlaw, definitely the site of Roman-era worship, or metalworking, or both, and possibly visited by Mary Queen of Scots. Its rock formations are simply spectacular. I had definite Zaphod Beeblebrox vibes that I could really be in this cave.
It’s less than half an hour’s walk (or five minutes’ drive) from the Palace Hotel. It costs £20 to visit, which is about right. (There is a visitors centre and a wee shop and cafe as well.)
About half an hour’s drive away, and ten minutes’ drive from each other, are two inaccurately named stone circles. The first, the Nine Ladies, is accessible only by scrambling over Stanton Moor. There was supposed to be another stone circle nearby in the undergrowth, but I could not find it. In what may be a sign of the times, Pokémon Go’s virtual interface was at least as useful for navigation than the various online maps that I consulted.
However after a trek through the woods, past ample evidence of former quarrying, you eventually reach the Nine Ladies, sitting in a tranquil glade on the plateau at the top of the moor.
They are inaccurately named because a long-buried tenth stone was uncovered in 1977. It is much bigger than the others, none of which is more than a metre high.
Close by is the King Stone (or King’s Stone), keeping watch on the Ladies.
Apparently the site is now a major focus for pagan worship. Offerings of magic mushrooms had been left in the centre, presumably last weekend for Samhain.
A little further away is the rock outcrop known as the Duke of York Stone, with various nineteenth graffiti carved into its surface, most notably this crown with the letter Y and the year 1826.
I do find the name of the stone a bit puzzling – in 1826 there was nobody with the title Duke of York; the last person to use the title had been Cardinal Henry Stuart, who died in 1807 and in any case was not generally recognised in England. The next two Dukes of York became Kings George V and VI, and the most recent of course was stripped of the title in disgrace.
Anyway, the ramble around the moor used up more time than I had expected, and there was time for only one more site; but it was a good one. Nine Stones Close, on nearby Harthill Moor, is even more inaccurately named than the Nine Ladies, in that there are only four remaining stones.
They are quite spectacular though, each about two metres high and each with its own personality. I thought I had taken individual pictures of all four, but seem to have done only three.
Nine Stones Close is only a short walk from the road across fields. The farmer has put up a sign asking us not to park on his driveway, but there is parking space beside the road just to the south. It has quite a different energy to the Nine Ladies.
I think that between last year and this, I have now seen the most spectacular of the stone circles of northern Derbyshire, but there are still plenty left to find, and next time I am in the neighbourhood I would happily go out of my way for even a lesser megalithic monument.