The Nine Ladies 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 such monuments is unknown, although archaeologists speculate that the stones represented supernatural entities for the circles' builders.

[4] It is 300m north/north-east of the Reform Tower,[5] while to the west of the stone circle is a cairn cemetery containing three large Bronze Age ring-cairns.

[8] By 3000 BCE, the long barrows, causewayed enclosures, and cursuses that had predominated in the Early Neolithic were no longer built, and had been replaced by circular monuments of various kinds.

[13] Across eastern Britain—including the East Midlands—stone circles are far less common than in the west of the island, possibly due to the general scarcity of naturally occurring stone here.

[20] The Nine Ladies stone circle measures 10.8m in diameter,[5] and is located on ground which slopes downward towards the east to northeast.

"[4] They vary in their shape and size, some being "blocks of squarish cross-section" and others being "oblong slabs with long axis aligned upon the circumference of the circle".

[20] Several archaeologists commenting on the Nine Ladies believed that, as at several other sites of this type in Derbyshire, a low bank surrounded the stone circle.

[29] Instead the excavators determined that the appearance of a bank was caused by undisturbed subsoil having been left in place around the exterior of the stones while being removed from the interior.

This led them to suggest that the site was originally of a "dished" shape, "with soils sculpted away both internally and externally to leave the raised rim".

[31] In the 19th and early 20th century, some commentators believed there was evidence for an earthen mound inside the circle, something which was then included in illustrations of the monument, although other observers simply stated that the ground here was uneven.

[38] The King Stone has been scratched with graffiti;[39] it has the name of "Bill Stumps" engraved onto it, alongside a cross and a zero, apparently carved in the 19th century.

[42] The antiquarian Hayman Rooke noted the existence of the Nine Ladies, which he considered "a Druid temple," in a 1782 article about the heritage of Stanton Moor published in the journal Archaeologia.

[43] The idea that Britain's prehistoric monuments had been built by the druids, ritual specialists present in parts of Iron Age Western Europe, was one that had attracted broad support among antiquarians over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, having been adopted by influential writers such as John Aubrey and William Stukeley.

[44] This idea was repeated by the antiquarian Thomas Bateman in his 1848 book Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire, where he described the Nine Ladies as a "druidical circle.

Ward's contribution on "Early Man" in the Victoria County History volume on Derbyshire, published in 1905, where he noted that the site was "well known.

This stone was initially exposed by a combination of soil erosion and the drought of 1976, before being fully unearthed by persons unknown in August 1977.

[53] They regarded the stone circle as a place to engage with spirits, deities, or ancestors, with some believing it was on a ley line or spirit-track.

[54] These rituals were sometimes designed to celebrate the seasons in accordance with the Wheel of the Year, although also for special events, such as wedding ceremonies known as handfastings.

[57] Material found buried in the circle in modern times has included crystals, polished pebbles, a plastic comb, and a cigarette packet.

[63] First, they removed the dilapidated 19th century walls in 1985, after which they commissioned a contractor to undertake cosmetic changes by filling in patches in the ground around the site.

In 1987, the contractor used quarry waste to do this, compromising the archaeological integrity of the site; the added material was then removed under the supervision of archaeologists.

[63] Aware that erosion and degradation was likely to continue at the Nine Ladies, in 1988 English Heritage hired Trent and Peak Archaeological Trust to conduct surveys of the site.

[65] The excavations only recovered a single find believed to be of probable prehistoric origin, a calcined flint from a retouched artefact, perhaps a long side-scraper or knife.

[67] This quarrying would prove financially lucrative to the landowner, Lord Edward Mannes of Haddon Estates; in 2004, anti-quarrying protesters estimated that he could receive around £100 million from the operation.

[68] Concerns were raised by local people, heritage management, and Pagans that quarrying would increase sound pollution, destroy wildlife habitat, and damage the archaeologically sensitive environment of the moor.

[73] This meant that the quarries could not re-open until the Peak District National Park Authority agreed on a set of working conditions for them.