The Nine Ladies Stone Circle

No trip to England would be complete without visiting at least one stone circle.  Since we’re nowhere near Stonehenge, we decided to go to Stanton Moore to see if we could find the 9 Ladies we had read about in our English Backroads book.  The English Heritage website describes them as:  “A small early Bronze Age stone circle traditionally believed to depict nine ladies turned to stone as a penalty for dancing on Sunday. It is part of a complex of prehistoric circles and standing stones on Stanton Moor.”  

One thing we’ve noticed about Britain is the lack of street signs or signage directing people to various landmarks etc.  This was no different.  We had the map in the book, and it got us to the general area, and then we managed to find a nice couple out walking who told us to “go through the village, turn up the hill at the fork in the road, go along flat for awhile, and you’ll see some cars parked.  The trail is there".

Typical signage around Britain explaining the history of a particular area.

Heading onto the moor

The famous 'Cork Stone' on Stanton Moor.

Vistas for miles, and a huge area to hike around

So off we go.  Found the parked cars ok.  Any signs for the 9 ladies?  Nope!  There was a sign indicating we were at Stanton Moor though, so we grabbed our lunch bag and headed out.  There was a trail.  And then a fork in the trail.  No sign, naturally.  So we headed left, and after about 15 minutes, the trail started to peter out.  We backtracked and met a man walking two dogs, and he gave us instructions.  Eventually we found them, about 45 minutes later.  We were rather underwhelmed!  Our expectation was  large stones, but we were met with little 18” stones.   There was a sign telling us about them - it was completely surrounded by garbage bags.  A lot of people were camping in the area, and there was a fair amount of litter on the ground.  We found a nice spot to sit down and have our lunch, and got chatting with a young man riding by on his bike.  We asked about the garbage, and were  told there had been a huge summer solstice party on the weekend (aha!  forgot about that!).  He was cleaning up and trying to figure out how to get the garbage bags and abandoned tents out.  He wasn’t employed by the area - just a young person doing his bit.  He said there had been at least 1500 people camping overnight, and as many as 5000 there during the day.  Glad we went when we did - I'm not big on crowds like that!

Info on the Nine Ladies - you may need to zoom in to read it (if you're interested)

The stones themselves.  Not sure if one is supposed to sit on them,
but Glen did!  You can see the large pile of garbage bags in the back
by the hanging green tarp.  

Anyhow, I found 3 tuppence pieces on the ground, Glen found ten pence, so we gathered our new fortune and carried on hiking across the moor.  It was spectacularly beautiful - views for miles.  We read on a sign that back in the day, the area was a favourite for the local duke to take his guests for rides when they came to visit.  

There are generally sheep and cows everywhere
around here.  We've seen versions of this little gate in
a number of places - makes it easy for the humans,
and difficult for the animals to get through
.  Climb up and over!

Another gritstone formation on the moor.

Glen, planning his house on the hill.

In front of Glen is a mass of rhododendron bushes going right back
to the skyline.  It must be spectacular to see it in bloom.

Glen providing a gate demo

Looking back - I put this in to show the trails - some
are very tiny through the brush, and other times it's
open moorland and you kind of guess where to go.

To give credit to the Brits, they may not point you in the direction of interesting places, but once you’re there, they tend to provide lots of information about what you’re looking at.  I’ve been taking pictures of the signs to remind me where we were and what my pictures are showing!  Most helpful.

Found way out on the moor!