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When Gulliver found himself in Lilliput, tied to the ground by some angry Lilliputians, I wonder did he question that perhaps, this Pygmy race had built a series of monuments in the Derbyshire Peaks.





No, I expect he had other things on his mind.





However, I have come to conclude, that the most likely explanation for the distinct lack of height in native Derbyshire residents is that they are descended of a particularly tiny indigenous race, this also leads rather magnificently into revealing why ALL the Monuments I manage to find whilst out on my travels are in fact Miniature, clearly whilst these are at times underwhelming, and lack the gravitas of say Stone Henge or the Taj Mahal, if we simply accept that they are on a scale correlating directly to the midgetesque status of those who originally built them, well.. it all seems more impressive and frankly, more Plausible.





of course, reader, you now wonder I expect what on earth I am on about.





Let me, explain further





last week, whilst in a state described by some as 'on the verge of breakdown' or myself as 'a bit stressed' I decided to head out to Buxton, to revisit a place I last frequented aged 10 on a week long residential trip with School to the afore mentioned town... For up on a Neolithic Burial barrow above the Town, through Grinlow wood, there stands a Monument, Solomons Temple


commissioned by a Victorian do-gooder to ease unemployment in the town, the temple looks out over the peaks, a viewpoint over the surrounding area as impressive as the badly named Surprise View. However, the temple, as it rather grandiosely calls itself stands a mere 20 feet high.









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now in my useless memory - I am aware there certainly WAS a sandstone building of sorts - we weren't allowed in it, lest any out of control ten year old fling themselves from the uppermost level, and say, sprain their ankle... No what I recalled was climbing on rocks, scaling down a steep slope and examining a memorial laid in small lumps of limestone for the recent Hillsborough deaths which I neglected to look for last week, ah well.. and being shouted to 'come away from that EDGE girl' - my fear of heights and falling only applies if I am on man made structures, usually chairs - outdoors its perfectly acceptable to lean over a precipice and say 'oooh its a Loooooooooooooooooooooooong way down'

My approach then was accompanied by that low level of internal mirth, I have walked merrily a mile and half up a hill on a very uneven path to see a temple, which is roughly twice and a bit the size of a man walking presumably into it, I pondered briefly if it were a trick of my useless eyes, and perhaps he was walking past it in the foreground, alas he vanished and I concluded at this point, that I may be destined to only find mini monuments, if indeed any full sized ones of an awe inspiring manner actually exist within the county boundary.


Another case in point being Stoke Flat Stone Circle

up on my beloved edges, a 2 hour saunter along from Curbur, including the drop down to Froggatt edge, there sits 'pon the flats, a stone circle, which is by all accounts very hard to find in the summer, despite it being within 50 feet of the main footpath, the bracken is vociferous up there, and the heather mighty distracting, what I hadn't wagered on, one January morn, was that this bordering on imperceptibility in the landscape was due to its being ridiculously tiny..

Again I counter the opinion that prehistoric derbyshire man MUST have been of extremely limited stature, for this circle is smaller then a garden ornament, indeed the main stone (forgive me, I am not Julian Cope, and cannot thus remember the correct terminology) is barely 3 feet high... I have opted to live in this ridiculous belief as it leaves me less underwhelmed by it all, I do not question the sacred nature of the sites, I do not call into mockery the beliefs of those who set about their construction centuries or millenia ago, simply I wonder, precisely why - when in the latter of these 2 examples, on a bloody great plane, surrounded by rather obvious large lumps of rock, they opted to create this place, from where they would revere the sun, observe the passing of the seasons on such a small scale, midgets clearly, or just bone idle...