“An unfrequentd path of another quarter of a mile led us to the base of Mock Beggar Hall, a curious assemblage of sand-stone rocks thrown confusedly together, yet so arranged as to form at a distance a strong resemblance to a regular building, with a huge chimney at each extremity; hence the name which this mass of rocks has obtained: the stony towers at each end are called Robin Hood’s Stride.”
‘Peak Scenery or The Derbyshire Tourist’ by Ebenezer Rhodes 1824.
“The story was that ‘Meg’ the witch or fortuneteller, was driven out of the village and lived near this wall, or near the Nelson Monument, and that the wall was named after her. But ‘Meg’ is probably one of the usual excuses offered in clerical-medieval days to explain away the credit for remarkable works made by primitive, or pagan, man...........’Meg’ however, is also Greek for big, or great, i.e megalith for big stone.
From the ‘Sheffield Clarion Ramblers’ 1942-3 by G.H.B Ward.
” Now for what can only be claimed as tradition, though the story may be quite true. Close by the northern bank of the River Trent, between Swarkston and Willington, is the little village of Twyford with its short spired church and wide views of the flat river plain stretching away under Midland skies. Half a mile to the eastward lies what is known as Round Hill, a large tumulus or burial mound. Here it is said were buried the bodies of those slain during a Civil War encounter. It should be remembered the Egginton Heath, or Common, lies but 3 miles to the west.”
“Peakland Days” Roger A. Redfern, 1970.
” Carl Wark was the site of a British encampment. A Celtic tribe lived here before the Roman legions came toBritain. At the end of the sixth century this area was part of the kingdom of Argoed, governed by Sir Lamoracke, one of the knights of King Arthur’s Round Table, who stood next to Sir Launcelot and Sir Tristram in deeds of valour.
Men knew Sir Lamoracke (or Llywarch, to give him his celtic name) as a fierce warrrior. He had twenty-four sons, and at Carl Wark he and they fought the hordes of Loagrians, who invaded the country when the Roman army of occupation left Britain. After a long and bitter defence the knight and the remnant of his forces were driven from the stronghold.”
Norman Price “The Derbyshire Dales” 1953
The stone was moved to the village of Pilsley where it was used as a pig trough....but pigs died and the landowners suffered bad luck until the stone was replaced on the barrow.
Folklorist George Paterson recalls....
The King’s Ring was a grand place once, but they took stones to build the lock on Newry Canal.There was a time when there was music in the ring. It was quare music, one minute it would coax the heart out of you, and the next it would scare the living daylights out of you. Maybe it is laments for the oul’ kings that are played.
Further to Schlager Man’s folklore post.....Finn McCool is reputed to be buried here.
Local Tradition holds that if you successfully land one stone in three on top of the capstone you will be married before the year is out. It also claims that the giant, Parra Bui MacShane, lies here after his fatal encounter with Finn McCool.
From The Gap of the North by Noreen Cunningham & Pat Mcginn.
George Paterson recorded the following story about the tomb.
Sur’ he saw no hurt in the breakin of it. But he never lived till finish it. For hundreds of years it has been there – maybe indeed since the beginning of time. I always remember it. Sure, it was there that I saw the first wee people.
From the Gap of the North by Noreen Cunningham & Pat Mcginn....
” So spectacular and remote is the monument that its construction was ascribed to either the Devil or Michael Scot, the great Medieval scholar who was reputed to command demons.”
Geoff Holder The Guide to the Mysterious Lake District (2009)
A Furness Diary 1801-1807 published by The Countryman in 1958.......
“Friday, May 24th 1801. About 100yds to the West of Urswick Church in Furness in a field called Kirkflat, adjoining to the highway, stands a rough piece of unhewn limestone, which the Inhabitants of Urswick were accustomed to dress as a Figure of Priapus on Midsummer Day, besmearing it with Sheep Salve, Tar or Butter and covering it with rags of various Dyes, the Head ornamented with flowers.”
In Harold T. Wilkins’ book Mysteries Solved & Unsolved he suggests that the stones name is derived from Ambrosie petrie the annointed stone. Meanwhile Doreen Valiente states that another possible origin of the name is from the Latin word ambire meaning to go round and that the stone was danced around. Both authors mention the stone was a focus for witchcraft ceremonies in centuries past.
In 1652 George Fox, the founder of the Quaker movement climbed Pendle Hill because he was ‘moved of the Lord‘ to do so. On its summit he saw a vision and had a mystical experience which inspired him in his religious mission.
“The local people call the spot Mother Goring; and at one time there was a custom of coming up to the Ring to see the sun rise on the morning of May Day. The Ring is said to be haunted by the apparition of a man on horseback....”
From:
An ABC of Witchcraft Past & Present.
Doreen Valiente
In the 15th Century the cave was known as Tursthous which translated means ‘giants house’.
The fissure cave on the tumbled limestone rocks of Hob’s House, on the northern side of Fin Cop, was once said to be the home of the giant Hulac Warren (sometimes Hector Warren) or Hob.
On a bend in the river, closer to Demons Dale, stands the Warren Stone. Which is said to be the petrified remains of the giant who was turned to stone for the attempted rape of a shepherdess. During the attack she either fell or threw herself to her death. Where her body landed a spring of pure water formed.
In an old local rhyme suggesting witchcraft in the area, Hob is portrayed as a fiddler:
The piper of Shacklow,
The fiddler of Fin,
The old woman of Demons Dale,
Calls them all in.
Local legend has it that Cromwell’s Parliamentarian troops set up a cannon on the barrow and fired on the town of Ashbourne a little more than a mile away.
Several of the cannon balls are displayed at St Oswald’s church in the town.
The hill, previously known as Howback Hill, is said to be named after a sheep rustler who was too tall to be hanged.
Also known as John Stump, the Head Stone is another example of a Peak District stone that is said to turn around on a ‘certain’ morning each year on hearing the cocks-crow. (others include Baslow’s Eagle Stone and the Cuckoo Stone in Matlock)
Visitors to the stone in late August with the sun highlighting its western face have also reported seeing a human face.
David Clarke’s ‘Ghost and Legends of the Peak District‘
(The ‘certain’ morning is not revealed by Clarke)
“I do know a story about the Merry Maidens, and it is a true story”.
“In 1907 an emmet (an outsider) from England bought the farm where the Merry Maidens stone circle stands. Thinking that the stones lessened the value of the field, the new owner ordered one of his workers to pull them down and add them to the stone walls surrounding the meadow”.
The worker, a Cornishman, protested, but the Englishman insisted: “This is my field, and I’ll do with it what I please, and you’ll do as I say!”
Next day the Cornishman hitched up three shire horses to a chain and began the task. Anyway, while pulling over the first stone the lead horse panicked, reared up, then fell over dead.
Reporting this to his master, the Cornishman asked if he should fetch another horse for the task.
“No,” said the landowner. “Set the stone back upright. We’ll pull the lot of them down later.”
But the stone circle was left undisturbed, and remains so to this day.
Daniel Bowen Craigue. May 2002.
Slimmed down a little from:
Robert Hunt’s “The Crowza Stones.”
“Popular Romances of the West of England. Volume 2”. 1903.
St Just, from his home in Penwith, being weary of having little to do, except offering prayers for the tinners and fishermen, went on a visit to the hospitable St Keverne, who had fixed his hermitage in a well-selected spot, not far from the Lizard headland.
St Just gloried in the goodly chalice from which he drank the richest of wines, and envied St Keverne the possession of a cup of such rare value. Again and again did he pledge St Keverne; their holy bond of brotherhood was to be for ever.
The time came when St Just felt he must return to his flock; he departed. St Keverne sending many a blessing after his good brother.
St Just had not long left before St Keverne missed his cup. Diligent search was made in every corner of his dwelling, but no cup could be found. At length St Keverne could not but feel that he had been robbed of his treasure by his friend.
His rage was excessive. St Keverne felt that his wisest course was to pursue the thief inflict summary punishment on him, and recover his cup. St Keverne started in pursuit of St Just. Passing over Crowza Down, some of the boulders of “Ironstone” which are scattered over the surface caught his eye, and presently he whipped a few of these stone pebbles into his pockets, and hastened onward.
Near Tre-men-keverne he spied St Just. St Keverne worked himself up into a boiling rage, and toiled with increased speed up the hill, hallooing to the saintly thief; who pursued his way for some time in the well-assumed quiet of conscious innocence.
Long and loud did St Keverne call on St Just to stop, but the latter was deaf to all calls of the kind and on he went, quickening a little.
At length St Keverne came within a stone’s throw of the culprit, and calling him a thief and adding some of the most choice epithets from his holy vocabulary. Taking a stone from his pocket, he let it fly after St Just. The stone falling heavily by the side of St Just, convinced him making all the use he could of his legs. He quietly untied the chalice, which he had fastened to his girdle, and let it fall to the ground.
St Keverne came up to where his cup glistened in the sunshine. He had recovered his treasure. Therefore he took, one by one, the stones from his pockets--he hurled them, fairly aimed, after the retreating culprit, and cursed him as he went.
There the pebbles remained where they fell, the peculiarity of the stone being in all respects unlike anything around, but being clearly the Crowza stones, attesting the truth of the legend; and their weights, each one ‘being several hundred pounds, proving the power of the giant saint.
From Robert Hunt’s “Popular Romances of the West of England. Volume 1” Published 1903.
“It is curious to find one tradition directly contradicting another. We are told, on the one hand, that The devil never came into Cornwall.
Because, when he crossed the Tamar, and made Torpoint for a brief space his resting-place, he could not but observe that everything, vegetable or animal, was put by the Cornish people into a pie.
He saw and heard of fishy pie, star-gazy pie, conger pie, and indeed pies of all the fishes in the sea. Of parsley pie, and herby pie, of lamy pie, and piggy pie, and pies without number. Therefore, fearing they might take a fancy to a “devily pie,” he took himself back again into Devonshire”.
The monumental mass of granite on Dartmoor, known as Bowerman’s Nose, may hand down to us the resting-place and name of a giant whose nose was the index of his vice; though Carrington, in his poem. of ” Dartmoor,” supposes these rocks to be
“A granite god,
To whom, in days long flown, the suppliant knee
In trembling homage bow’d.”
Let those, however, who are curious in this problem visit the granite idol; when, as Carrington assures us, he will find that the inhabitants of
“The hamlets near
Have legends rude connected with the spot
(Wild swept by every wind), on which he stands,
The Giant of the Moor.”
“Popular Romances of the West of England” Robert Hunt. 1903.
“Tradition says the stones indicate the graves of nine sisters. Hals (?) appears to think some nuns were buried here”.
Robert Hunt’s “Popular Romances of the West of England. Vol 1”. 1903.
“I was in the neighbourhood of Zennor in 1859, and by accident came across the Zennor cromlech, and was struck with the mode of its construction (not having heard of its existence before), and thinking it bore some resemblance to the Druidical altars I had read of, I inquired of a group of persons who were gathered round the village smithery, whether any one could tell me anything respecting the heap of stones on the top of the hill. Several were in total ignorance of their existence.
One said, ‘Tes caal’d the gient’s kite; thas all I knaw.’ At last, one more thoughtful, and one who, I found out, was considered the wiseacre and oracle of the village, looked up and gave me this important piece of information,
--’Them ere rocks were put there afore you nor me was boern or thoft ov; but who don it es a puzler to everybody in Sunnur (Zennor). I de bleve theze put up theer wen thes ere wurld was maade; but wether they was or no don’t very much mattur by hal akounts. Thes I’d knaw, that nobody caant take car em awa; if anybody was too, they’d be brot there agin. Hees an ef they wus tuk’d awa wone nite, theys shur to be hal rite up top o’ th hil fust thing in morenin. But I caant tel ee s’ much as Passen can; ef you ‘d zea he, he ‘d tel he hal about et.’”
From Robert Hunt’s “Popular Romances of the West of England. Volume 1”. 1903.
The barrow came by the name the Lord’s Seat, as it was here that William Peveril, he of Peveril Castle fame, sat and watched the Peak Forest chase.
Visible from the cup marked rock is Coombes Tor and legend has it it was here the tribes of the Peak fought the Romans. One of the Chieftans daughters was sacrificed in the hope it would bring them a victory......alas it didn’t and the locals were wiped out.
The position of the ‘Pricking Rods’ is said to mark where the sacrifice took place. As to what the ‘Rods’ actually are is a bit of a mystery ...they look like they are possibly the remains of 2 wayside crosses stood on top of a large square boulder. Apparently 2 crosses together like this would make them a bit of a rarity......The other explanation for the use of the stones was to aid bending bows whilst being strung.
In the book ‘Place Names of the Peak District’ the King Stone is referred to as being a flautist and not a fiddler, who was turned to stone for playing on the sabbath.
The Deity stone opposite the entrance is supposed to smack anyone who swears near it. As usual not everyone believed it, and one man who went up there one night to “f and blind” at the stone was found dead the following morning.
The Eagle Stone is similar in appearance to the Mother Cap Stone and lies at the edge of a cairnfield, on Baslow Edge.
On certain mornings of the year the stone is said to bounce around the moors. Eagle Stone is thought to be a corruption of Aigle’s Stone a Celtic deity who threw large stones.
A local violinist planned to visit the 9 Ladies one midsummmer’s night with his family....his aim was to take part in a duet with the ‘fiddler’ stone ( king stone ).
But in true Derbyshire fashion he never made it....
Tripped over a tree root and broke his bow.
In Burls ‘Prehistoric Avebury’ and various other books is the story which was told to journalist Paul Screeton.
About ’ a very sincere man ’ who fell asleep at Arbor Low and was visited in his dream by the ghosts of Atlanteans who instructed him in the henge’s ‘Purposes and dimensions’.
I’ve never come across the rest of the story, so can’t really shed any light as to what those purposes were......
In local folklore Robin Hood/Green Man was supposed to have stood astride the rocks and pissed onto the fields ’ where seven maidens upon seeing it turned to stone ‘
David Clarkes- Ghosts and Legends of the Peak
During Lethbridge’s “soundings” (banging an iron bar on the ground) he found the outline of a chariot...
Legend has it a golden chariot is buried under the hill.
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..
When the Heathcotes were excavating here in 1939, 3 of the stones were mysteriously smashed overnight. No explanation was ever found.
They are now held together with concrete.
In WP Witcutt’s 1942 contribution to ‘Folklore’; Fairies were said to dance and hold high revel on the barrow on Xmas Eve.
These stones may be the stones the giant St Keverne threw at St Just for stealing from his drinking cup, there is debate as to whether these are the stones or the two stones on Crousa Common.
There are several other stories to do with this circle other than maidens being turned to stone for dancing on the sabbath. One story says that the place was the scene of a large battle between the Saxon Athelstan and Cornish Howell in 936AD, the site of the pipers is where the two men stood and directed their men on the battlefield.
Flint arrowheads found at nearby Boleigh were believed to be from a battle King Arthur fought for the Cornish.
This stone, supoosedly marks the burial place of Ryalvran, who is said to have died here fighting for the recovery of his fathers land.
His opponent is unknown, although it’s thought he occupied Lescudjack Castle around 400-500AD.
2 sisters turned to stone for not going to church.
The giant Myen Du was said to live at Maen Castle near Land’s End, and the fairy folk called Coopers banged stones together to warn the inhabitants of St. Ives that rich shoals of fish were approaching.
The site is also known as the Grey Ladies and on moonlit nights folklore says that ’ the stones spin and dance.‘
A Derbyshire Antiquarian writing in the 19th Century told of a farm labourer who while resting at the stones found an old clay pipe. He cleaned it out and began smoking his tobacco. ‘A peculiar and delicious scent’ came from his pipe, he then noticed by one of the stones that the ground had become transparent, and when he gazed into it he saw a beautiful world. More colourful than anything he had seen, with gaily dressed small people.
Fairies are mentioned in many of the local tales of the stones, from fairy dances to the playing of pipes.