Birchover's old stone houses cling to the hilly road which climbs to Stanton Moor, with its stone circle, monoliths, and burial mounds, and brings us a glorious panorama of wooded hill and valley.
At the foot of the village are the Rowtor Rocks, an outcrop of millstone grit rising in places to 150 feet. This massive pile of rocks, which has vague connections with the Druids, was shaped according to the whim of a parson who lived in a Tudor manor house at their foot, since made new. Thomas Eyre, who died in 1717, one of a famous Derbyshire family, built himself a study in the rocks, and had the seats hewn out for the entertainment of his friends, so that they might sit and enjoy the glorious prospect of the valley far below giving way to beautiful hills.
Nearby are the fine rocks of Cratcliffe Tor and Robin Hood's Stride. Cratcliffe Tor has a shallow cave at the foot in which a hermit of 600 years ago has carved a crucifix and hewn out a seat and a niche for a lamp. The other pile of rocks has been given its queer name because the distance between two up-standing pinnacles (about 22 yards) is supposed to measure the length of Robin Hood's stride.
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