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Nine Stones, Winterbourne Abbas is in Winterbourne Abbas, Dorset.
Nine Stones, Winterbourne Abbas [Map], aka the Devil's Nine Stones aka the Nine Ladies, is a Late Neolithic Early Bronze Age Stone Circle. Located in the bottom of a narrow valley, the Nine Stones circle has nine irregularly spaced sarsen megaliths with a diameter of 9.1 by 7.8 metres, with a small opening on its northern side. Two of the stones on the northwestern side of the monument are considerably larger than the other seven.
22nd August 1723 Drawing of Nine Stones, Winterbourne Abbas [Map] by William Stukeley (age 35). Itinerarium Cuiriosum, Plate 92.
The Gentleman's Magazine 1768 Issue 3. About half a mile west of Winterborn Abbey, in a small enclosure, just by the left hand of the road that leads from Dorchester to Exeter, are nine stones [Nine Stones, Winterbourne Abbas [Map]] of unequal dimensions, placed in a circular form; the diameter is about 28 feet, their distance from each other is unequal, but generally about six feet. One of them is seven feet high, another six; the rest not above three. Their inequality seems to be owing to time and the weather. On the north east is an aperture, which, whether originally left for an entrance, is uncertain; if not, there are two or three stones wanting. Some have thought they are petrified clumps of flint, others more probably, that they were brought from a quarry at Little Bridy, about a mile south west from hence, It was not improbably a Britith temple. Scarce a mile farther, lye some stones, which seem to be the remains of some imperfect ancient monuments: Hereabout is a vast number of barrows, neatly turned and campaniform, many of them are surrounded by a trench or ditch.