When passing through Boroughbridge one evening, I couldn’t help but stop to admire these striking megaliths. My photo captures only two of them, as the third stands on the opposite side of the road.
These monumental pillars are one of Britain’s most enigmatic and overlooked historic sites. Just outside Boroughbridge, the Devil’s Arrows provide some of the earliest evidence of human activity in the region and are thought to date back around 4,000 years to the early Bronze Age or even earlier. Originally, there may have been five stones in this row; today, just three remain standing.
Their purpose, origin, and age have been debated for centuries and are a mystery even now.
According to local legend, the Devil tried to hurl these stones at Aldborough in a fury, but missed, causing them to land in Boroughbridge instead—a remarkable tale considering the lightest stone weighs approximately 25 tons and was likely hauled from Plumpton Rocks the other side of Knaresborough, nearly nine miles away!
These stones are thought to be part of a wider neolithic landscape found along the river Ure including Thornborough Henges the subject of an earlier post.