This denuded hillfort is oval and encloses almost two acres. The defences comprise triple circuits of bank and ditch, with Read more
Site Details:
Bronze-Age stone circle in Farley Wood, Derbyshire
Where & how it was found
Location: Farley Moor Wood, a Forestry England plantation two kilometres south-west of Matlock, Derbyshire.
A single 2 m-high gritstone pillar—long known to walkers—was probed last winter after archaeology student George Bird alerted Forestry England that “topographic bumps” nearby looked artificial. A joint evaluation by Forestry England, Wessex Archaeology and the Time Team community dig programme followed in March 2025. (BBC, BBC)
What the trenches revealed
Geophysics and three hand-excavated trenches uncovered ten further uprights lying just below the leaf-litter, defining a ring c. 18 m in diameter around the visible stone.
A low stone-built platform or “kerb cairn” occupies the circle’s south-eastern arc; charcoal lenses and a smashed Collared-Urn sherd in its make-up gave an early Bronze-Age radiocarbon estimate of c. 1700 BCE (3,700 cal BP). (Archaeology Magazine, Home | Forestry England)
Micromorphology shows the platform surface was deliberately kept clean, suggesting repeated gatherings or rites rather than funerary cairn use.
The above image, from Time Team, shows as red dots the larger stones identified near to the existing standing stone and stone circle, that were connected as potential outliers.
Why it matters
Adds a new stone-circle province to the eastern Peak District—previously the main clusters were on Stanton and Froggatt Edges; Farley occupies an unexpected low-saddle position overlooking the Derwent valley.
“Kerb-cairn + circle” plan has close analogues in SW Scotland (Temple Wood) and the North York Moors, hinting at wide-flung ceremonial fashions around 1800–1600 BCE.
Potential for more standing stones in the area.
The difficulty of identifying such structures is managed woodland, using most modern geophysical methods.
Preserves buried uprights almost intact, unlike many ploughed circles; laser-scan will allow 3-D refitting of toppled stones and analysis of dressing techniques.
Next steps
A full Time Team YouTube episode (filmed on-site); digital terrain models and excavation diary will be open-access via Archaeology Data Service.
Forestry England has confirmed the find lies outside the footprint of a proposed holiday-cabin scheme but has agreed to redesign footpaths to create a protective buffer. (BBC)
Planned 2026 work: palaeoenvironmental coring of an adjacent peat hollow to reconstruct Bronze-Age woodland clearance, and photogrammetric mapping of all 11 stones before any re-erection is considered.
Farley Wood’s ring, provisionally dubbed the “Farley Moor Circle,” fills a geographic gap in Derbyshire’s prehistoric ritual landscape and provides a rare, well-preserved example of a platform-circle rite complex dating to the very start of the Bronze Age.
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Bronze-Age stone circle in Farley Wood, Derbyshire
What the trenches revealed
Next steps
