Arbor Low is found in the Peak District of Derbyshire, and is a Neolithic henge monument. It is found on high moorland, on a plateau that is 375m above the sea level. Although the site is actually found on private property, its owner allows public access, with management provided by the Peak District National Park Authority.
Arbor Low is made of over 50 large limestone blocks that were all quarried at a site nearby, which is created to form a circle that resembles an egg, which has monoliths near the entrances and a portal stone found at the south entrance. Near the north entrance there is also a pit that at one time also may have had a stone as well.
Today many of the stones have been broken by time that are thought to have been connected together at the original time of its construction, at which time there may have been anywhere from 41 to 43 stones. Most of the stones are between the heights of 1.6m to 2.1m and the monoliths are in the range of 2.6 and 2.9m tall.
Near the centre of the Arbor Low are seven blocks that are much smaller in size and placed strategically to form a cove. Although one stone is upright the rest of the stones are lying down, which is thought to be the result of toppling by Christians, or the simply erosion of the rocks over time, which has caused them to fall on their sides.
On the other hand, since there are no holes or pits where the stones may originally been erected straight up, they may never have been erected in the first place. The truth behind if the stone was meant to be erected or not is a fact that will remain unknown.
Arbor Low sits on a plateau that is surrounded by an earth bank that is an oval, which measures about two miles around, with distance of 90 by 85m around the edges of the Southside. There is also a ditch around the bank that is seven to ten meters wide, and two meters deep. Around the ditch and bank there are two causeway entrances that allow visitors in, with the first entrance being nine meters on the northwest, and a southeast entrance that measures six meters in width. On the bank there is also a platform that measures 52 by 40m.
The entire henge monument of Arbor Low is actually part of a larger complex that has been linked to Gib Hill’s Bronze Age barrow that is only 320m away. It is linked by an earth ridge. The ditch and bank are thought to have been built in the time of Late Neolithic era, with additional stones added later in history, but before 2000 BC. Historians believe that Arbor Low was used up until the Bronze Age, when the outer bank was built so that the barrow could be erected.
