Castle Hill (Castleton)

Nearest town:
Whaley Bridge (13km WSW)
OS reference:
SK151827
OS sheet:
110
Latitude:
53° 20' 26.27 N
Longitude:
1° 46' 23.47 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Castle Hill (Castleton) (Sacred Hill) by stubob

05/04. Dating to around 1000BC, this (winking) Celtic head was found in a wall close to the Russet Well. Now displayed in the Castleton Centre.

stubob
stubob May 31, 2004

Articles

Castle Hill (Castleton)

C
CARL May 28, 2013

Visited 26.5.13

As part of my on-going mission to visit every English Heritage site we arrive at the very pretty town of Castleton.
Being a bank holiday weekend the place was full of tourists and Dafydd and myself left Karen and Sophie to look around the shops whilst we headed up towards the castle.
After flashing my CADW membership card to gain entry I had a quick look in the small display cabinet.
Although nearly all medieval there was one small prehistoric flint blade on show.

I shall have to read the guidebook to see if there is any mention of anything prehistoric?

The walk up to the castle itself is very steep and you would have been mad to attempt to attack it from this direction. Once in the castle the views over Castleton and the surrounding area was quite something – well worth the effort of the climb.
Great views over to Mam Tor which I was standing on top of earlier in the day.

Folklore

Castle Hill (Castleton)
Sacred Hill
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Nov 11, 2006

In addition to stubob’s post:

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.

Folklore

Castle Hill (Castleton)
Sacred Hill
stubob
stubob Nov 13, 2002

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..

Sites within 20km of Castle Hill (Castleton)

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