Thought to date from the Iron Age. A roughly circular enclosure, a 5m wide rock cut ditch surrounds the site. Natural outcrops of stone are used in the construction as additional boundaries.
Building platforms have been identified within the enclosure.
A better view of the 'enclosure' can be seen from Robin Hood's Stride.
Recently discovered hillfort. Rock strewned interior, protected by steep drops to the east and south. A boulder wall to the North and West.
The boulder wall uses earthfast boulders in its construction and there are only small sections left.....non of these are overly impressive and its a fair old search to find the sections that remain.
Definitely worth checking out......
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06/06
John Barnatt has suggested that this hillfort is in fact a 'causewayed enclosure' or 'tor enclosure' like Gardoms Edge or Carl Wark.
The eye can scarcely contemplate this nodding ruin without exciting a momentary aprehension in the mind, lest some of these vast disjointed fragments, which it exhibits, should instantaneously descend.
My friend, the Rev. B. Pidcock of Youlgreave, informs me, that a few years ago, and after a violent thunderstorm, a large solid mass, loosened from its ancient fastnesses, and weighing many tons, fell to the earth, and blocked up the entrance to the Hermit's Cave. This obstruction was very properly removed by the late Henry Thornhill, Esq., and the access to the cave restored.
p201 in Reflections: A Poem: Descriptive of Events and Scenery Connected with the Different Months of the Year. By John Gisborne (1833).
At the foot of Cratcliffe Tor is a hermits cave which is thought to have been inhabited in medieval times. On the wall of the cave is a 4 foot carving of the crucificion.
In 1549 local records show a payment made to the hermit.... the cave is now behind a metal fence (altho' the gate is always open) with yew trees either side of the entrance.
Worth a look.