Derbyshire (England) -- Antiquities; Derbyshire (England) -- History
A circle of this class which has hitherto escaped observation has
an interesting deviation from the usual lines. It stands 1,050 feet
above sea level on the hillside at Cadster, near Whaley Bridge, but
in Chapel-en-le-Frith parish. Its vallum has an elliptical diameter,
varying from thirty-five to forty feet, with entrances north-north-east
and south-west. The stones are of the same arrangement and size as
those of The Nine Ladies, and the diameter of their circle varies from
thirty feet to thirty-three feet six inches. The centre is nearly
level, but some large stones below the turf may have supported a
monolith, which, perhaps, was a large pointed stone, measuring four
feet long, two feet six inches wide, and one foot deep, now lying at
the foot of the vallum. Ninety feet nearly south by west of the circle,
almost prostrate, is the “pointer,” a block of millstone grit measuring
three feet six inches high, two feet six inches broad, and two feet
deep. In these particulars the monument closely resembles the last
described, but it lies on a hillside with a declination to the west of
one in ten, and to obtain the required plane for the western vallum and
stones, the builders have lowered the height of the vallum on the east
to about one foot high, and raised that on the west to four feet. Hence
it is nearly, but not quite, level. Although there is a very extensive
view to the north-west, the horizon is within two or three hundred
yards on the north and east. A line of sight taken over the stones
west and east within the circle exactly touches the eastern horizon,
where there is a small artificial mound of stones, and this system of
levelling the vallum and stones of a circle to the plane of the horizon
seems to be general, and is especially in evidence at Ford.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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