Gratton, Derbyshire

Dale End is a hamlet in Derbyshire, England to the west of Elton.

Harthill Moor is a small upland area in the Derbyshire Peak District of central and northern England, lying between Matlock and Bakewell near the villages of Birchover and Elton. The moor is within the southern portion of Harthill civil parish. Its highest point is 272 metres (892 ft) above sea level. The River Bradford flows along the northern edge of the moor past Youlgreave and into the River Lathkill at Alport. Harthill Moor is a rich prehistoric landscape with several protected Scheduled Ancient Monuments.The rock of Harthill Moor and nearby Stanton Moor is known as Ashover Grit, an outlier of Millstone Grit. This is a coarse-grained sandstone which weathers to produce coarse sub-soils, rich in sand, and the soils themselves are typically podzols. The Ashover Grit sandstone layer lies on top of shale, which in turn lie upon Carboniferous limestone.Robin Hood's Stride (also called Mock Beggar Hall) is a prominent natural rock formation with distinctive pinnacle towers. Prehistoric rock art has been found on and close to the gritstone outcrop. It is a popular location for bouldering and limited short climbing is possible on Weasel pinnacle and Inaccessible pinnacle. Nearby Cratcliffe Tor provides more challenging rock climbing, with over 200 graded routes. Cratcliff Rocks is an extensive rock outcrop on the edge of Harthill Moor in the eastern gritstone moors of Derbyshire. Cratcliff Rocks defended settlement is an ancient enclosure in the field to the north east of Robin Hood's Stride. The monument lies on the western edge of the Cratcliff Rocks outcrop and is in the form of a round enclosure about 100m wide with a 5m wide ditch cut into the rock. Several building platforms have been identified inside the enclosure. Whilst the site has not been excavated, it is considered to be linked to the other Bronze Age features of Harthill Moor. Cratcliff Rocks hermitage is a medieval hermit's cave. The rock shelter has a number of recesses cut into the walls for candles and sacred objects. A bas-relief crucifix carved in the cave has been dated to the 13th or 14th century. On the rock face outside the shelter, chiselled grooves and sockets for timber beams indicate where the roof structure was of a building adjoining the cave. Nine Stones Close is a Bronze Age stone circle about 30m across, with four remaining upright stones about 2m high. Several original stones were removed in the 18th and 19th centuries, one of which stands in a field wall 70m to the south where it was taken to be used as a gatepost. Partial excavations of the circle were conducted by Thomas Bateman in 1847, Jewitt and Greenwell in 1877 and J P Heathcote in 1939. Many Bronze Age flints and pot-sherds were discovered. Doll Tor stone circle lies about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) east of Nine Stones Close. A further 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) north east is Nine Ladies stone circle on Stanton Moor.The Castle Ring defended settlement (immediately north of Harthill Moor Farm) now consists of an oval earthwork ditch (about 5m wide and 100m across) with inner and outer banks, up to 2m high. It hasn't been excavated but it is considered to be an integral part of the Bronze Age landscape of Harthill Moor. Harthill Moor bowl barrow is a Bronze Age burial mound about 150m SE of Harthill Moor Farm. It is 20m long and 11m wide. It was partially excavated in 1877 by Jewitt and Greenwell. A limestone cist was found with the remains from two cremations.The Derbyshire Portway prehistoric road runs across Harthill Moor in a north-south direction. It passes between Robin Hood's Stride and Cratcliff Rocks and past Nine Stones Close. It was an ancient route between Mam Tor in the Peak District to the Hemlock Stone near Nottingham. The Limestone Way long distance footpath follows the Derbyshire Portway route across Harthill Moor but then heads around the Castle Ring earthwork towards Youlgreave.Harthill Hall, on the northern edge of the moor near Alport, is the manor of a great 13th-century estate. The 16th-century manor house, farm house and 14th-century chapel still stand. Harthill was recorded as Hortel and Hortil in the Domesday Book, as part of the lands of the Norman knights Henry de Ferrers and Ralph FitzHubert.

Middleton, often known as Middleton-by-Youlgreave or Middleton-by-Youlgrave to distinguish it from nearby Middleton-by-Wirksworth, is a village in the Peak District, Derbyshire, England. The appropriate civil parish is called Middleton and Smerrill. The population of this parish was 137 at the 2011 Census. It lies south west of Youlgreave, above the River Bradford. Its main industries are farming and tourism.

Elton is a village and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, and lies within the Peak District. Its nearest towns are Bakewell and Matlock. Elton is on a hillside overlooking a rock formation known as Robin Hood's Stride. It lies on the division between gritstone and limestone countryside and there are examples of buildings and walls constructed with both types of stone in the village. It is a popular destination for cyclists and tourists.

Long Dale is a carboniferous limestone valley near the village of Elton, Derbyshire, in the Peak District of England. The dale is cut into the plateau of Gratton Moor and Smerrill Moor and lies to the north of the hamlet of Pikehall, which is the venue of the annual Y Not Festival. Midway down the valley it turns sharply left and is known as Gratton Dale. Most of the valley is dry but Rowlow Brook flows down the lower part of Gratton Dale towards Dale End and onwards to become the River Bradford at Youlgreave.Long Dale is part of the Derbyshire Dales National Nature Reserve. Natural England manages the reserve which covers five separate dales of the White Peak (Lathkill Dale, Cressbrook Dale, Hay Dale, Long Dale and Monk's Dale). The reserve contains ash and elm woodland and shrubs including hawthorn and elder. Abundant flowers include mountain pansy. On the spoil heaps of the old lead mines there are rare flowers such as spring sandwort (Minuartia verna) and alpine pennycress (Thlaspi alpestre). Native grasses include meadow oat and carnation sedge interspersed with heather, bilberry and dwarf gorse. Long Dale & Gratton Dale is also a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).Overlooking Long Dale, the Smerrill Moor, Smerrill Barn and Long Dale bowl barrows are protected Scheduled Monuments. These Bronze Age burial mounds are about 10m across. They were excavated by Thomas Bateman in 1857 and he found numerous human skeletons, flint tools and a decorated Beaker pottery drinking vessel.On the east side of Gratton Dale are the remains of old lead mines (Rath Rake, Cowlica Rake, Dunnington, Hardbeat, Hardwork and Gatcliffe) which are a Scheduled Monument. Evidence of ancient surface lead mining comes from Roman brooches that were found in Victorian times at Cowlica Rake and Hardbeat mine. Records of intensive lead mining since the 1640s include disputed claims of mining rights. The remains include mine shafts, building ruins and earthworks.Just south of the head of Gratton Dale are the remains of Mouldridge Grange, which was a medieval farmstead run by monks from the Augustinian priory. The remaining earthworks of buildings and enclosures are a Scheduled Monument.There is a clear bridlepath along the length of the valley floor. The Pennine Bridleway runs parallel to Long Dale, about 1 km to the west. Long Dale is on the route of the 65 kilometres (40 mi) long Limey Way, which links up 20 Debyshire dales.

All Saints’ Church, Elton is a Grade II listed Church of England church in Elton, Derbyshire.

Youlgreave or Youlgrave is a village and civil parish in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England, on the River Bradford 2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 km) south of Bakewell. The name possibly derives from "yellow grove", the ore mined locally being yellow in colour. The population in 1991 was 1,256; it is one of the largest villages in the Peak District National Park. The village has three public houses (the George Hotel, Farmyard Inn and Bull's Head Hotel), and a British Legion club.

The Duke of York Inn is a Grade II listed public house at Main Street, Elton, Derbyshire DE4 2BW.It is on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.It was built in the 19th century.

Pikehall is a small village in the Derbyshire Dales consisting of a few dozen households and a handful of farms. The population of the village is included in the civil parish of Hartington Nether Quarter. The A5012 road runs through the middle, dividing the village in half. The village is home to the annual Y Not Festival.

All Saints’ Church, Youlgreave is a Grade I listed parish church in the Church of England in Youlgreave, Derbyshire.

Robin Hood's Stride (also known as Mock Beggar's Mansion) is a rock formation on the Limestone Way in Derbyshire close to the village of Elton. The nearest town is Bakewell, to the north. The popular tourist spot can be accessed via the Limestone Way just off the B5056 between Haddon Hall and Winster, or from the unclassified road from Alport to Elton using either the Limestone Way, a concessionary footpath or Access Land. Both options have limited parking at the side of the road. It consists of gritstone boulders deeply seamed by water flows. Limited short climbing is possible; nearby Cratcliffe Tor provides more serious routes. The two "pinnacles" are Weasel pinnacle (eastern end; Diff) and Inaccessible pinnacle (west; V Diff). An ancient road, possibly prehistoric or Roman, the Derbyshire Portway (also known as Old Manchester Lane and The Chariot Way) passed close to the outcrop. Nearby is Nine Stones Close, a four-stone circle, and, at Cratcliffe Tor, a rock shelter known as the Hermit's Cave, containing a crucifix carving dated stylistically to the 13th or 14th century.Robin Hood's Stride features in an episode of The Return of Sherlock Holmes and the film The Princess Bride (1987).

Nine Stones Close, also known as the Grey Ladies, is a stone circle on Harthill Moor in Derbyshire in the English East Midlands. It is part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread throughout much of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages, over a period between 3300 and 900 BCE. The purpose of the monument is unknown. The Nine Stones Close originally measured 13.7 metres in diameter. In the mid-19th century it had seven stones in its ring, although by the early 21st century that number had declined to four. There are two carved cup marks, a form of rock art, evident on one of the remaining stones.There may have previously been at earthen tumulus inside the ring, suggested by a slight elevation observed in the mid-19th century. It is possible that the ring was deliberately positioned to allow sightlines to the nearby Robin Hood's Stride, a gritstone crag, and that a nearby sandstone boulder decorated with cup markings also had reference to the circle. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Nine Ladies attracted the attention of antiquarians like Hayman Rooke and Thomas Bateman. In 1877 the antiquarians William Greenwell and Llewellynn Jewitt excavated at the site, while in the late 1930s the Derbyshire Archaeological Society set two of the orthostats standing again.