“You shall not pass!”

It had taken us a while to find the place and there were several things here we really wanted to see, quite apart from the rocks themselves. It isn’t the easiest place to find. The formation is called Robin Hood’s Stride. Legend has it that they were named because Robin Hood strode between the two towers of rock, some fifty feet apart. It is also known as Mock Beggar’s Hall because its silhouette resembles a house, though I have to wonder if there is not a lost tale there too. Whatever stories await us in the rocks, it didn’t look as if their guardians were about to allow us passage that day…and anyway, it was getting late. We would need a day for all there was to see but at least we had located the place.

Just a short distance from the Stride is a farm built on the site of Castle Ring, an Iron Age Fort. There are the remains of barrows close by, enclosures that date back to the Bronze or Iron Ages, hut circles and an intriguing site found by The Northern Antiquarian that I would like to get a closer look at. There is a hermit’s cave, rock carvings…and as if that weren’t enough, Nine Stones Close stone circle too. And no public footpath.

Or at least, none that we could see from where we were. Just barbed wire and the denizens of the field barring our way. We were reluctantly obliged to admit a temporary defeat on this one. We had already spent the afternoon exploring the ‘Druid’s Castle’ and both the day and our energy were running out, while the bug that had us both was in full swing. And anyway, you can’t rush a stone circle. There may be only four of the Nine Stones still standing, but they are the biggest in this part of the country, standing up to seven feet tall. We would just have to come back another day, ready for a climb…