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Dawn of History

Many visitors touring the prehistoric wonders of the Peak marvel at the apparent fortitude of the builders of these enigmatic structures. For many monuments stand, as they have for up to 5,000 years, on exposed, wind-swept moors often over 1,000 feet (305m) above the sea.

How, they wonder, did those `primitive’ folk manage to survive in such isolated spots without the modern benefits of bricks and mortar, not to mention central heating? The answer is simple. In the tone, Iron, and Bronze Ages when many of these structures were erected, the climate of the Southern Pennines was considerably warmer and drier than it is today. And the river valleys and dales, which now seem to offer some shelter, were often the thickly forested homes of ferocious wild beasts.

So as the modern visitor stands on the airy bank which surrounds Arbor Low, perhaps the most famous of the Peak’s prehistoric monuments, he must imagine that the open, treeless landscape of today was entirely different in the Late Neolithic period, when the stone circle, or `henge’ was built. Then, the circle of stones (no one is sure if they were ever erect) must have served as an important gathering-place for the surrounding tribes, either for ritual or trading purposes.

Another of the Peak’s celebrated stone circles is the Nine Ladies on Stanton Moor. The circle is surrounded by more than seventy Bronze Age barrows, which indicate the importance of this little gritstone plateau above the Derwent Valley near Bakewell to those early settlers.

We know a little more about the Iron Age township which existed on the 1,695 foot (517m) summit of Mam Tor, the `Shivering Mountain’ which overlooks Castleton. Archaeological digs have revealed that a sizeable population lived within the considerable earthworks which ring the summit, but which have fallen away in the landslip on the eastern face. Carl Wark, on the moors above Hathersage, utilised a natural, rocky knoll, as a defensive position, and has been dated to the confused years after the Roman withdrawal.

Another famous Iron Age hill fort is that on the promontory of Fin Cop, which dominates the well-known view of Monsal Dale from Monsal Head.