Long ago, the Devil stood on Howe Hill and hurled giant stones towards the town of Aldborough, roaring:
“Borobrigg keep out o’ way, for Auldbro’ town I’ll ding down!”
Fortunately for Aldborough, his aim was poor. The stones fell short, landing outside Boroughbridge instead, where they became known as the Devil’s Arrows. Or so an old Yorkshire legend tells us.
It is a dramatic explanation for one of Britain’s most extraordinary prehistoric monuments: three enormous megaliths, rising to seven meters high and weighing about 25 tons each. Together, they form Britain’s tallest surviving stone alignment.
More than 300 years after this legend was first recorded, new evidence points to a rather different explanation for where the stones came from. In research published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, we traced the geological source of the Devil’s Arrows to an unexpected place about 18 kilometers west of Boroughbridge.
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