Devil's Den

Devil's Den is a cromlech that consists of a capstone supported rather precariously by two upright sarsen stones. This is all that remains of a neolithic chambered longbarrow, dismembered by farmers over the centuries. It was given its present shape late in the nineteenth or early in the twentieth centuries.

It now has the resemblance of a devil crouched over its diabolical hovel, and sits proudly beside Clatford Bottom in a field on the Marlborough Downs near Fyfield, alone apart from the company of a handful of friendly sheep.

There are cup-markings on the top stone, and in an article from 1909 by Alice Gomme she writes,  "if anyone pours water into any of the natural cup-shaped cavities on the top stone at midnight, it will always be found in the morning to be gone, drunk by a thirst-tormented fiend."

Devil's Den, 17 July 2010 (Flickr album of 18 photos)