Baslow and its Eagle Stone

“Change comes not,

this dread Temple to profane,

Where time by aeons reckons not by years,

Its patient form one crag,

sole stranded, rears…”

William Watson

This quote from a Sonnet by the bard William Watson is what W.A Baker in his book, Moors Crags and Caves of the Peak District (1903), used to describe a trip to the rock known as the Eagle Stone, which sits majestically upon the open moor behind Baslow Edge.

As to whether Watson was indeed filing his nails on his boots while penning this little ditty beneath the lone sentinel, we shall never know, but one would understand Baker revelling in his writers licence, referring to the Eagle as that sole stranded crag.

The mighty Eagle Stone’s name may come from “Egglestone”, meaning Witch Stone or it could be after the Pagan God “Aigle” who used to hurl huge missiles of rock for sport, as they used to do…

In related terms there is also the boulder of the “Aiguille” at Hen Cloud and indeed the “Agglestone” which nestles on a hillock over looking Studland Bay in Dorset, which has its fair share of theories of who threw that massive hulk. Some say it was the Devil, living in a B&B on the Isle of Wight trying to knock over Corfe Castle and missing by some margin…

Whatever the folklore elsewhere, Baslow, and its history, takes us back to the Monolith of The Eagle Stone, where the crags humble beginnings began in the 19^th Century with the stones north-westerly nose being a challenge for the men folk of the local villages whom wanted to marry their beloved.

The local tales pertain to the young fellows, who could not wed their bride until they had shown their fitness and agility by climbing to the top of the stone.

Most probably fell off on purpose and trudged off with smiles on faces down to the local Inn to meet their mates, but many have followed in their footsteps to put up some great test-pieces and foolishly ended up with a ring on their finger…

... 'time by aeons reckons' indeed...