Rainster Rocks lies near the south western end of a chain of dolomitic limestone outcrops that start in the north east at Harboro' Rocks moving through Longcliffe Crags and finishing at Black Rocks.
Smaller in area than Harboro' or Longcliffe the outcrop at Rainster is impressive because of its height.
With both the outcrops to the NE having a prehistory, (Harboro' Rocks where a Neolithic passage grave was erected and a Neolithic cave burial was located along with signs of Palaeolithic activity and Longcliffe Crags where Rains Cave is sited), I've often wondered about Rainster Rocks and whether they were an important part of the ancient landscape.
So over the last 5 or 6 years I've been searching the area around the rocks for any kind of evidence. At the south side of the rocks is a Romano-British settlement and lead rake and this is noted in the NMR.
The area is also heavily marked with Medieval ridge and furrow so any chance of finding a long lost barrow wasn't on the cards....but what there was was a prolific amount of mole hills....so I took my chance with them after successes with this method elsewhere in the Peak.
After a year or two with no success I started to take the lads up there with me to help me look....I showed them a piece of flint so they knew roughly what they were looking for and the youngest promptly went to a mole hill and recovered what looked to be a flint awl.
That was all that we found and nothing more turned up for several years until this year. Checking the mole hills this year I've found up to now what looks to be the rough out of a small flint axe and also a small quartzite celt (at least I think thats what they are, I'm trying to get in touch with the small finds officer at Derby's museum to confirm my beliefs).
While I know that a couple of random finds prove nothing the rocks lie within 2 miles of the Neolithic/Mesolithic sites of Minninglow Hill and Tithe Farm, the Mesolithic site at Hoe Grange and the Neolithic sites at Roystone Rocks and Curzon Lodge.
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