Many persons in Castleton are said to believe, that the Sun appears to dance up and down at its rising on Easter Sunday Morning, when viewed from the top of the Castle Hill adjacent; and that numbers repair thither, almost annually, in expectation of seeing it! By others, the Sun is said to illuminate more of the surface of that deep valley, in the shortest days, than it did some years previously!
p627 in 'A General View of the Agriculture and Minerals of Derbyshire' by John Farey (1817) - on Google Books.
Could be a bit of a dodgy posting this but here goes......
Castle Hill overlooks Castleton, with Peak Cavern (devils arse) below it.
The Normans built Peveril Castle on top of the hill, but local folklore reckons the druids used to worship there. Every Easter Sunday people from Castleton would climb the hill for sunrise, and then move on to drink from the Russet Well, down in the mouth of the cavern.
In one of the cottage gardens near the cavern a carving of a face was found on a stone and is thought to date back to the Iron Age.
Garland day usually May 29th( oak apple day ) is the surviving 'pagan' festival with a Green Man and loads of pissed up locals..
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