I'm astounded by this place. I know it's not a monument as such, but by The Lord Harry it's a remarkable spot. No wonder it was chosen for cup and ring stuff. It has a sense of place that just oozes from the rocks, from the soil, from the vegetation, from the gaps in between the rocks even.
The re-working done by the modern folk hasn't detracted anything from the Genius Loci. If anything it's just added to it.
I had originally planned to visit after dark, but was advised by a wise fella that this might be a good way to injure myself. Having seen the holes in the ground and the precipitous drops, grasping brambles and slidey mud bits, I can now see why. Having said that, I'm going back after dark at some point. It would be rude not to.
The cup and ring marks are faint, and the quarrying evident all over the place does make you wonder what may have been lost (despite what I wrote there about the genius loci). The main ones are on the SW side of the outcrop, below the carved armchair. If you take the path up from the pub, this puts them at the other end of the outcrop, past the carved steps leading to the armchair, and down to your left as you're looking at the chair. A nice unique little motif with flower petal things, iirc, the boulder with the smaller concentric motifs is just below this.
This is a magical place set in a megalithic landscape.
You can see evidence of the hand of man altering the rocks stretching way back into prehistory. There are at least two sets of rock carvings here that are unique, this is not suprising once you look at the landscape they are set in. Views across the valley to Cratcliff Rocks and Robin Hood's Stride with Nine Stones Close just beyond, Doll Tor and the Andle Stone less that 1km away and Stanton Moor just beyond that. This is a beautiful and unique landscape and must have influenced the minds of the carvers.
The Serpent carving was very difficult to make out and will probably have to be visited in different light conditions to appreciate it's true beauty. The quartered circle with cup and petal motifs is gorgeous as are the two 'eye-like' rings.
The none-prehistoric carvings are is amazing too. What was in the head of the barmy masons who altered huge swathes of the rocks. Caves, steps, seats, passages and massive rock faces have all been created from the altered rocks. Me and Stu checked out one rock cut room that had been worked on every surface, a small hole had been bored through the cave wall to allow a tiny shaft of light to enter the otherwise dark room. In this room I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen in the UK, it was supsended from the roof and guarding a huge silk ball.
Whilst admiring the view, a huge wagon drove by in the valley below, on the back of the wagon were three massive stone blocks, evidence that the Derbyshire stonemasons have an unbroken lineage from the present day back to the neolithic (that beats the phoney freemasons, with their Solomon's temple crap, hands down dunnit?).
Rowtor Rocks is a magical place, take your kids, take a torch and take your time.
This is a truly amazing site - from the moment I entered the site I felt transported. Each turn around the huge boulders offers something new - at times it's like being on one of the original Star Trek sets. The subtle movement between the natural and the artificial is the most incredible thing here - cave entrances turn out to be man-made, passageways to higher and lower levels of the rocks open up before you. The actual prehistoric rock art on display (what little we could find of it) is just a small part of the attraction here - these rocks seems to have been drawing human attention forever. An incredibly magickal place.
Most of the ancient carvings are found on the western edge of the outcrop, around the level below the 3 seater rock armchair.
The 'cross' in Baz's pic is on the northern side 20ft below the armchair.
The cup and ringed marked boulder can be seen south of the chair on the level below, two of the carvings can be seen. While a very worn third carving, is on the boulders top flat left hand corner.
25ft west of the cup and ring boulder and under a large tree is a very worn carving of a 'serpent'? There's a large cup mark and a faint wavy line travelling down the rock, with a semi cirle carving next to it ( along with the cup this is the most prominent part )
A couple of feet below this, in the tree roots is another rock with a worn carving along the same lines as the 'serpent'. 6 cup marks and another faint wavy line between them.
I always knew these as Druid Rocks when I was growing up in Derbyshire, but 'officially' they're called Rowtor Rocks. They resemble a mini-Robin Hood's Stride. There are many legends and myths about druidic activity on the rocks (although as far as I know the evidence is sketchy) and the Victorians loved 'em. There are comfy little armchairs carved into the rocks, and several caves, rooms and passages to explore. I went up there yesterday for the first time in years, and they're as much fun as they've always been. If you're going to the Nine Ladies or the Andle Stone, then don't miss these rocks. The views from the top are amazing, especially in winter when there are no leaves on the trees. Does anyone know any history of Rowtor?
A little more on what we're missing, with added rant:
[At Land's End] a few years ago an officer of the British Navy amused himself and his crew by the wanton overthrow of [a rocking stone] from its balance. On representation properly made, he was obliged to restore the stone to its former state at his own cost.
It would have been well if the idle and foolish visitors of Matlock had been compelled to do the same to the logan stones at Rowtor Rocks, near Bakewell in Derbyshire. In the year 1793 there were, on an eminence of about the height of a common barrow, three stones in a state of perfect vibration. Two of them were small, not perhaps a yard high, but one, nearly spherical, was about ten feet high; and could be made to vibrate by continued though easy pushes.
It should seem that a little cost might restore the stones to their ancient state of vibration. The act would be gratifying to the rational antiquary, and reprove that idle and indeed wicked propensity to wanton mischief in which Englishmen of almost all ranks are eminent above the people of all other nations.
p168 in Naology: Or, A Treatise on the Origin, Progress, and Symbolical Import of the Sacred Structures. By John Dudley (1846).
to quote from Glover's ' History of Derbyshire,' an irregular shaped block estimated to weigh about fifty tons, that could be shook by the pressure of the hand . . . was forced from its equilibrium by the mischievous efforts of fourteen young men, who were assembled for the purpose on Whit-Sunday in the year 1799.
E. BRADBURY.
Major Hayman Rooke suggested that the name of Rootor came about in reference to the outcrops rocking stones, of which there once were reputedly 8 or 9.
The word 'roo' being an old Peak(/English?) word for something that moves "to and fro".
The village of Birchover was also once known by the same name, Rowtor/Rootor.
If your ever up here...check out the small chapel at the foot of the rocks. Built by Thomas Eyre in the 18C, the man thought to be responsible for the more modern carvings and rock shelters. On the small porch built on the side are carved stones and stone heads. These were found around the village and are believed to have come from a local Norman church, site of which is now lost.
This is a great local history site, if you go back to birchovervillage.co.uk and follow the local history link on the lefthand side, there are pages of info on Stanton Moor, the Nine Ladies, Doll Tor, Harthill and more
Btw, Bateman was somehow mistaken, the passage beneath the rocking stone is nowhere near big enough to pass animals through, yeah at the front of the stone there's a rather large opening but it narrows down to almost nothing at the back, no way could you safely pass a baby through unless you had octopuss arms and a couldn't care less attitude to your young uns.
Ok prod a piglet with a pointy stick and it would make it through i admit but it's not practical to do so on any scale.
My Jack Russel could do it at a squeeze if i stood the other side with a nice bit of meat to temp her.
: )
"Nearly a quarter of a mile west of Row-tor is another assemblage of large rocks, forming a similar kind of hill, called Bradley-tor, after a former owner of the property on which they stand; on the upper part is a rocking stone 32 feet in circumference, and of orbicular shape, and raised above the ground by 2 stones having a passage between them. This conforms in every aspect to the Tolmens or rock idols described in Borlase's 'Antiquities of Cornwall' in which part of England there are many examples of this form rocking-stones...."
T. Bateman "Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbys"