The Nine Stones, Dorset

The Nine Stones is a stone circle from the late Neolithic period, around 4,000 years old, in a shallow valley in the countryside just west of Winterbourne Abbas in south Dorset. The circle is relatively small, 26 feet in diameter, and seven of the stones are also small, the other two larger, though the site has never been excavated so some could be significantly bigger underground.

There are only another six known stone circles in Dorset, all somewhat smaller others in the south of England, though made of the same material - sarsen stone, a type of silicified sandstone.

The valley floor location is also quite unusual, as most stone circles and similar features like burial mounds were on high ground, with long lines of sight. Today the setting is made more incongruous by a busy road, the A35 which runs just 20 feet from the nearest stone.

The circle is contained within a square, railing-protected enclosure, lined by trees on the other three sides, part of Nine Stone Wood. The stones are managed by English Heritage, are free to enter, and although they could once be approached directly from the road, for safety reasons they are now reached via a quarter-mile path from the nearby village.

Access

Prior to around 2010 the circle could be accessed from the A35, via a stone bridge over a little stream that runs parallel, and then through a gate in the enclosing railings. But being so close to the road, this was deemed dangerous so the bridge and gate were removed, and a combination of the entrenched stream and the railings now makes it hard to enter from the roadside. Parking at the site is also an issue though there is a small layby a few hundred feet away. The recommended access is now along a westwards path across fields from the village, parking on one of the residential side streets.

The Stones

The two larger stones are about seven feet high, the others between one and three feet. They are spaced on average three feet apart but with a gap of ten feet at the north, suggesting either an entrance or a missing stone. One of the smaller stones is partially subsumed by the roots of an ancient beech tree, now just a stump as the tree died in the 1990s and was later mostly cut down. Older the names for the circle include Devils Nine Stones and the Nine Ladies, and the site lies within an area of many other ancient relics including long barrows, bank barrows, tumuli, dykes, enclosures and other earthworks.