Doll Tor facts for kids
Doll Tor as seen from the west
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 Location in Derbyshire
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| Location | Birchover, Derbyshire |
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| Coordinates | 53°09′45″N 1°38′42″W / 53.162497°N 1.645007°W |
| Type | Stone circle |
| History | |
| Periods | Bronze Age |
Doll Tor is an ancient stone circle found in Derbyshire, England. It is located near the village of Birchover, just west of Stanton Moor. Stone circles like Doll Tor were built across Britain, Ireland, and France. This happened during the Late Stone Age and Early Bronze Age. This period lasted from about 3300 to 900 BCE.
No one knows for sure why these stone circles were built. Experts think the stones might have represented special spirits or gods to the people who built them. Doll Tor is 7 metres (about 23 feet) wide. It has six main stones standing upright in a circle. Smaller, flat stones were carefully placed between these tall stones. This created a type of wall called drystone walling.
Later, a pile of stones called a cairn was added to the east side of the circle. Digging at the site has shown that people were buried there. The remains of both adults and children were found inside the circle and around the cairn. Sometimes, these remains were put into clay pots called urns. Other times, they were just buried with items like flint tools, small bronze pieces, and special glass beads called faience beads.
An early explorer, Thomas Bateman, dug at Doll Tor in 1852. Another dig happened between 1931 and 1933, led by J. P. Heathcote. Today, some modern Pagans use the site for their ceremonies. Sadly, people have also damaged the site by moving stones in 1993 and 2020. Projects were then needed to put the stones back where they belonged.
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Exploring Doll Tor: Where It Stands
Doll Tor is located on the western side of Stanton Moor. It is about half a mile north of the village of Birchover in Derbyshire. This area is full of other ancient remains. These include old farms and places used for ceremonies.
Archaeologist Aubrey Burl called Stanton Moor a "prehistoric graveyard." It has many cairns (stone piles), ring-cairns, standing stones, and stone circles. For example, Doll Tor is about 250 yards southwest of the Andle Stone. It also looks over the Harthill Moor Stone Circle.
In 2005, Burl said Doll Tor was easy to visit. However, as of 2020, the site is on private land. This means it is not open to the public. Doll Tor is also a Scheduled Monument. This is a special protection given to important historical sites.
Understanding Stone Circles: Doll Tor's Place in History
Around 3000 BCE, people in Britain started building new kinds of monuments. Before this, they built long mounds and large enclosures. But then, they began to create circular monuments. These included earthen henges, wooden circles, and stone circles.
Stone circles are found in most parts of Britain where natural stone is available. They are very common in southwest Britain and northeast Scotland. People built these circles for a very long time, from 3300 to 900 BCE. The busiest time for building them was between 3000 and 1300 BCE.
These ancient stone circles usually show few signs of people visiting them right after they were built. Historian Ronald Hutton thinks this means they were not used for noisy rituals. Instead, they might have been quiet, empty places. Archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson suggests that in ancient Britain, stone was linked to the dead. Wood, on the other hand, was linked to the living. Other experts believe the stones might have represented gods or other powerful beings.
In eastern Britain, including the area where Doll Tor is, stone circles are less common. This might be because there isn't as much natural stone there. However, there are many wooden circles and earthen henges in the east. This suggests these might have been more popular.
In modern Derbyshire, there are five or six known stone circles. There are also many ring-cairns, which look similar to stone circles. The circles in Derbyshire are like those found in Yorkshire. In the Peak District, many circles were built with nine stones. The only very large stone circles in the Peak District are Arbor Low and The Bull Ring. These combine a stone circle with an earthen henge. Doll Tor and the Nine Stones Close are smaller stone circles found near the edge of the limestone area.
Building Doll Tor: How It Was Made and Used
We don't know the exact date Doll Tor was built. But archaeologists believe it was made during the Bronze Age. It seems to have been built in at least two main stages.
The first stage was building the stone circle itself. It was made from six large stones standing upright. The circle was about 7 metres (23 feet) wide. The stones on the west side were a bit taller and heavier. This might have made the circle look like it sloped upwards from east to west. The ground itself actually sloped downwards in that direction. The upright stones were placed on a stony platform. This platform was probably built to make the ground level. Unlike some other sites, there was no raised bank around the circle. Later, drystone walling was added. This connected the six standing stones using flat stones.
The second stage involved building a cairn (a pile of stones) right next to the east side of the circle. This mound was somewhat rectangular. At the east end of the cairn was a large flat stone. This stone might have once covered a burial, but no remains were found under it. This structure is similar to a ring-cairn found at Gortcorbies in Northern Ireland.
Ancient Burials at Doll Tor
Archaeological digs at Doll Tor have found evidence of human burials. The clay pots found with these burials suggest they are from the Late Bronze Age. Using stone circles for burials was common in other parts of the Midlands and Northeast England. Experts think these sites changed from being ancient sacred places to later burial grounds.
During the 1850s dig, three or four special pots called collared urns were found. These were in the centre of the circle, along with smaller "incense cups." The dig in the early 1930s found a burnt flint knife in the middle of the circle. Fragments of a plain, thick pot were also found inside the southeast edge of the circle.
The 1930s digs also found charcoal mixed with decorated pottery pieces. These were with the bones of a child in the southeastern part of the circle. On the eastern side of Doll Tor, a large amount of cremated remains was found. These were from an adult male. No pottery was found with these remains.
At the southwest side of the circle, more charcoal was found near an upright stone. This was thought to be the remains of a cremation where the bones were completely burned away. At the base of the western upright stone, a small, roughly made pot was found. It was about 3.25 inches (8.3 cm) tall and had very few bones with it.
The 1930s excavation also found at least six human burials around the cairn to the east of the stone circle. In the middle of the cairn, a large stone slab covered the cremated remains of an adult. This person was thought to be a woman. A special segmented faience bead was found with the bones.
On the south side of the cairn, a small pot was found upside down. It was about 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) tall. It also contained very small pieces of bronze, three unburnt flint tools, and very few bones. In the southeastern part of the cairn, a flint tool and two pots were found on their side. One was 3.25 inches (8.3 cm) tall, and the other was 5.25 inches (13.3 cm) tall. The human remains with these were from a child.
North of the cairn, a pit held the remains of an adult, probably a male. A red faience star bead was found with these bones. At the time, people thought this bead might have come from Egypt. In the northeast of the cairn, the remains of a child were found with pieces of a large pot. These were placed under a large flat stone.
Discoveries and Challenges: Digging and Damage at Doll Tor
Early Explorers: Bateman and the Heathcotes
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On April 10, 1852, an early explorer named Thomas Bateman visited Stanton Moor. He was with two friends, Mr. Carrington and Mr. Glover. They found Doll Tor and saw small pieces of pottery and burnt bones. These had been dug up by rabbits. The three men used their knives to dig deeper. They found more items under the ground.
They then borrowed a spade and a pick from a nearby farm. Using these, they dug into the centre of the circle. They found the broken pieces of three or four burial pots and what they called "incense cups." In his 1861 book, Bateman wrote the first record of Doll Tor. Some of the pot pieces he found were later put back together at the Weston Park Museum in Sheffield.
By 1931, Doll Tor was covered in grass and heather. Only the tops of four stones could be seen. Between 1931 and 1933, J. P. Heathcote and J. C. Heathcote dug at the site. They noticed a dip in the centre of the circle. They thought this meant Bateman had not filled in his earlier dig site. The Heathcotes started digging in the centre. They found the cairn to the east of the circle. They believed Bateman had not disturbed it.
The Heathcotes also found cremated human remains. They showed these to Miss M. L. Tildesley, an expert. They also found several beads, which were studied by Mr. H. C. Beck. By the late 1930s, J. P. Heathcote still had the finds at his home. But by the early 2000s, they were moved to the Sheffield Museum.
During the Heathcotes' dig, three of the upright stones were broken by unknown people. Two of them shattered into many pieces. The Heathcotes then carefully glued these broken stones back together. When they found Doll Tor, much of it was hidden underground. But they decided not to cover it up again. Instead, they spread the sand and loose stones elsewhere. This made the stone features visible for visitors to see.
Doll Tor in Recent Times: Rituals and Repairs
Doll Tor has become important to modern Pagans. They use the site for their ceremonies. In 2007, researchers Robert Wallis and Jenny Blain noted that Doll Tor was "clearly a ritual centre" for some groups. They observed that visitors sometimes left offerings like flowers and fir cones. However, Doll Tor did not get as many offerings as another stone circle nearby, the Nine Ladies. In 2018, the Derbyshire Times reported that offerings were often found tied to trees around the site.
In the spring of 1993, unknown people changed the stone circle. They increased the number of upright stones from six to fourteen. They removed parts of the circle's edge and much of the eastern cairn. They used these stones to create a bank around three sides of the cairn's central area. Several large rocks were also set upright to form a rough circle south of the main ring. It is believed that those responsible then performed rituals there.
Archaeologist Aubrey Burl blamed these changes on "New Age ideas" about ancient fertility rites. This alteration was against the law. Pauline Ashmore and Barry Marsden discovered the changes. They quickly told the Peak National Park Archaeology Service.
English Heritage paid for a project to restore Doll Tor. Professional archaeologists, students, and park rangers worked together. In 1994, two small trenches were dug. These helped find the original spots where two western upright stones stood. This allowed them to be put back in place. The diggers found a "stony platform" inside the circle. They believed this was an ancient, artificial layer. Since it was still whole in some places, they thought parts of the site had not been dug up by Bateman or Heathcote.
Two of the upright stones had been lying down since at least the mid-1800s. They had fallen from their original standing position. The restoration project decided to put these back up. For the circle's edge and the cairn, the restorers could not know exactly where each stone had been. So, they had to guess based on the stones' size and shape. After the restoration, archaeologist John Barnatt said the monument now looked more like its ancient self than ever before. He hoped this would stop future attempts at "ill-informed 'rebuilding'."
In early June 2020, more damage was found. Several stones had been moved, and fires had been lit. Historic England called this a "heritage crime." Reports on social media said that other ancient sites in Britain were also damaged around this time. This happened as the country was slowly coming out of the first COVID-19 lockdown.
Images for kids
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Doll Tor stone circle - geograph.org.uk - 59752.jpg
The Doll Tor stone circle
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View of Doll Tor as seen from the east
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Doll Tor is located just to the west of Stanton Moor (pictured)
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A painting of Thomas Bateman, an early explorer who dug in the centre of Doll Tor in 1852
