The Devil's Arrows

After a particularly chilled afternoon spent at Thornborough Henge in Yorkshire, we failed in our attempt to view another henge just down the road at Hutton Moor.* Appalled at this nefarious waste of chilling time, we continued on towards the A1, looking for signs to Roecliffe. There, in a field, close to Boroughbridge, we found what we were looking for: The Devil's Arrows.

These three standing stones are believed to be part of a massive series of sites, with Thornborough and Hutton Moor, dating back to the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age period (a very long time ago). Two are in a field surrounded by crops and the third poor fellow is to be found just over the road, all by its lonesome, in a little cut-out, right by the side of the road.

We parked up as close as possible (obviously) to the stones, but were somewhat daunted by the waste high crop and possibility of the crop owner possessing a gun and a shovel. That is to say Gazza and myself were somewhat daunted, Debs was already striding through the corn like a well-experienced crop circle faker. As my way was now clear and I would have to expend far less energy, I followed her the few metres to the stones. Now when I say the corn was high, that's not to say that it in any way obscured our view of The Arrows.. these things are simply massive. Quite the tallest lumps of rock I have ever seen! And pretty too. Their tops are grooved; looking like some large mythical creature has scratched them. Apparently these markings are the result of water erosion, but I prefer my theory. Not only are these stones tall, they have girth too! Made Gazza feel quite inadequate.

After leaving a suitably impressive, pixel based path through the crops, we walked over the road to visit with the third Arrow. This chap is just as impressive as its friends, but appeared somewhat forlorn, standing as it does in a little culvert right next to the road. I think this stone would have been far happier standing in a field with friends (but then who isn't?).

That said, the Devil's Arrows are mighty impressive. If you like your standing stones standing, they don't get much better than this.

* The henge is on private land accessed via a farm. We tried to locate the farmer to ask his permission to have a goosey (as we're nice like that), but left when we couldn't locate him.