by Naraya Naserian | Sept 6, 2025 |
I’ll give it to you straight: This site is not known as “Goddess Rock”. Officially, she is called Robin Hood’s Stride, with the nearby Nine Stones Close Stone Circle.
14th century christianized legend has it that the Green Man (later popularized as Robin Hood), stood astride the two pinnacles of the outcrop and urinated into the fields below. Nine maidens were dancing there and, upon seeing him with his phallus out, were turned to stone. As a result of this, Nine Stones Close was once named the Grey Ladies. Further stories attribute the site to fairy activity and to being a portal into the Otherworld.
Fun fact: Robin Hood’s Stride features in an episode of the TV series The Return of Sherlock Holmes and was also used for filming various scenes in the 1987 movie The Princess Bride. I have yet to watch it.
Located on Harthill Moor in the Peak District of the English Midlands, right next to the long-distance Limestone Way, at a latitude of 53.15°N, this remarkable rock formation is mostly frequented by hikers, rock climbers, and the odd adventurer seeking out earth-sky-mysteries. But even among these, it seems only few know of or get touched by her ancient ceremonial, once-every-19-years, Lunar Standstill magic! By the Grace of Great Mother, i was privileged to learn about this magic, see her, rest beneath her belly, touch, feel and deeply get touched and felt by her majestic presence. In the lovely summer of this year, 2025, i was able to visit twice: once on a sunny mid-May afternoon, and the second time on the Sagittarius Full Moon night of June 11-12 2025 – the night that she received her sacred kiss from the Moon God.
So, what exactly are we talking about?
Nine Stones Close and Robin Hood’s Stride
“No longer nine stones, but four gritstone orthostats remain of this stone circle that also bears the name ‘The Grey Ladies’. The tallest remaining standing stones of any prehistoric site in Derbyshire, they stand isolated in a farmer’s field on Harthill Moor.”
Nine Stones Close seen from atop Robin Hood’s Stride
If interested, i highly recommend you head over to the full site entry at Stone-Circles.org.uk from which this and the following quotes are taken:
“About 370 metres south of the circle across the open fields is the strange rock outcrop of Robin Hood’s Stride. It is suggested that it may have served as a sacred hill altar and may indeed be the reason for the construction of the stone circle on this particular spot as from the centre of the circle, the midsummer full moon at its maximum elevation is seen to pass behind and between two natural stone pillars on top of the hill.”
Elsewhere, in a surprisingly detailed Wikipedia article, it is stated: “From the stone circle, at midsummer the major southern moon can be seen setting between the two boulders of the nearby Robin Hood’s Stride … this alignment may have been the reason for the deliberate placement of the circle. It is also possible that the distinctive shape of Robin Hood’s Stride was itself caused by human alteration of the natural feature.”
Robin Hood’s Stride, image by Darius Khan, Wikimedia Commons
Let’s pull this apart!
The Goddess Rock
Had it not been for one lone female commentator mentioning her on a Google Maps entry, i doubt i’d ‘seen’ her – The Great Mother or Goddess, with her distinct face, breasts and belly, serenely crowning the outcrop, facing pretty much due East.
But once seen, one cannot unsee her. Even less so when one considers the aforementioned possibility “that the distinctive shape of Robin Hood’s Stride was itself caused by human alteration of the natural feature.”
Did the ancients deliberately create these features or perhaps emphasize existing ones to make them more recognizable as a natural giant Great Mother / Goddess statue? I leave it up to you and your imagination to discern … maybe after visiting and spending time with her yourself.
The Stone Circle
Nine Stones Close measures about 14m in diameter. The remaining four standing stones range in height from 1.2 to 2.1m. The period of construction is not exactly known, though the large size of the stones, in contrast to much smaller ones used at other stone circles in Derbyshire, has led to suggestions that Nine Stones Close might be from an earlier time, possibly the Neolithic period. Excavations in 1847, 1877 and 1939 found flints and pottery shards dating from the Bronze Age. Strangely enough, like with so many other sites of this genre, no contemporary archaeo-astronomical investigation of this site seems to have been undertaken.
Worth noting is that this stone circle is embedded in the vast context and landscape of numerous sacred sites dotted around the British Isles, 250 of which are identified as stone circles. Very close by, now also part of the working local farm, lies the remarkable Castle Ring Iron Age hillfort.
Lunar Standstill Moon Magic
Heaving read and researched the little i could find about this place, my curiosity was roused. And so it was that, with a clear sky forecasted, on the Sagittarius Full Moon night of June 11, i ventured out to see what there was to see – if anything …
The Full Moon was at a Southern extreme out-of-bounds declination of -28°24’. The Moon rose June 11, 22:30pm BST, at 140°, and set June 12, 5:00am BST, at 220°, it’s path spanning a mere 80°!
Armed with warm clothing, a sleeping bag, hot tea, and essential ceremonial paraphernalia, i arrived around midnight to the already risen Full Moon. By its light, i followed the hiking path, from the road first heading towards the rock outcrop. From there, it’s just a short distance north to where the stones are located. It being midnight, no other human was around. I strongly sensed though that i would not be the only one being drawn here during this most auspicious time. Approaching the stones, i still didn’t see anyone. However, i must have been starkly silhouetted against the moonlight, for a low male voice said: “Don’t get a fright, I’m just sitting here, behind the largest stone.” Of course, for a moment i did get frightened, as i suppose all women have been conditioned to feel when out at night on their own during the past few millennia of patriarchal reign. But it turned out there was no reason to be scared. The guy was a really friendly stranger who’d also heard snippets of this being a Lunar Standstill site and had come to check it out, the same way i had. We got chatting for a while about this and other nearby sacred sites and stone monuments and then both settled into our quiet ceremonial space, watching the Moon as it slowly made its way towards the Great Goddess, indeed perfectly visible from the stones. A young couple turned up at some point, but they weren’t very communicative and left after a short while. And a woman appeared who told us that she’d lived in the area for over 30 years and had been working with an archaeological project with interest in megalithic sites. Sadly, the project seems to have been discontinued, but their website PECSAETAN – Dedicated to the ancient monuments of Derbyshire still holds some valuable information.
So as the night wore on, it was just me and two other humans observing and each in our own way ceremonializing this special occasion, culminating in the Moon God settling atop the Great Goddess, before rolling off to her right and soon after setting altogether. I can vividly imagine how the tribes inhabiting this land and erecting this stone circle would have been in awe and wonder at a sight like this which bears such strong resemblance to the ancient sacred marriage rites, where the Divine Union of God and Goddess, Sacred Masculine and Sacred Feminine, was enacted publicly through the ritualized sexual act to bless the land and safeguard it’s fertility and the prosperity of the people.
I’ll leave you to contemplate with my best picture of this sacred moment. And who knows, perhaps i’ll meet you there in 19 years …
OoB Moon atop Great Goddess Rock, Robin Hood’s Stride, England, June 2025.
Blessings Abound!
(unless otherwise credited, copyright to all photos Naraya Naserian)
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