X-Files from the Bog: The Devil's Arrows

The Devil's Arrows, Boroughbridge

Boroughbridge is an old market town in North Yorkshire. It lies at the junction of the River Ure and the ancient Roman road of Dere Street. Even earlier occupation is evidenced by the "Devil's Arrows" - three megaliths standing on the south side of the river, close to the modern A1(M) flyover. They form a line some 200 yards long running in a north-north-westerly direction, and are 18ft, 22ft, and 22ft 6in tall. The arrows vary in cross-section from 4 feet to just over 8 feet across. The tallest of the arrows is close to the roadside on the west side of Roecliffe Lane, while the other two stand in a field on the eastern side. How the arrows got their name is told in a legend thought to date from the late 17th century. The Devil, in a fit of spite at the inhabitants of Aldborough, threw the stones at their village from How Hill near Fountains Abbey whilst reciting the following piece of doggerel:

"Borobrigg keep out o' way, For Aldborough town I will ding down!"

Fortunately his attempts were as poor as his verse, and fell short by at least a mile. However, it's said that walking a dozen times widdershins (i.e. anticlockwise, against the direction of the sun) around the stones will summon him back again!

A fourth arrow?

It's suspected that there were at least four stones in the group, and possibly five or more. When John Leland visited the area in the 1530s he described the presence of four stones in some detail. Later that century, William Camden also described:“foure huge stones, of pyramidall forme, but very rudely wrought, set as it were in a straight and direct line... whereof one was lately pulled downe by some that hoped, though in vaine, to find treasure”. On this evidence it seems reasonable to assume that there was another stone, since it's an unlikely story to have been made up. But if that is the case, what happened to stone No. 4?

Well, it's said that the upper part of it is somewhere in the grounds of Aldborough Manor while the lower part has been incorporated into the bridge across the River Tutt a few hundred yards to the east. I quite like the idea of the stone being incorporated into the bridge, and thereby remaining in the area to serve the local populace. Smaller pieces of the same millstone grit have been uncovered in at least one of the gardens of houses nearby, lending further support to the idea that a fourth arrow may have been brought down at some point.

Origin and purpose

It has been suggested that the arrows were meant to form part of a large circular henge a mile in diameter. A more likely explanation is that the arrows, which date from around 2000 BC, were always intended to be a single row of stones, the like of which was quite common in the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. They may be aligned with the southernmost summer moonrise, and also align with an old ford that crossed the Ure slightly to the east of the flyover. As such they may occupy part of a comprehensive ritual landscape.It should be noted that in common with other megalithic sites, the Midsummer fair of St. Barnabas was held near the stones. This tradition lasted until the 18th century.

The stones are made of a type of rock known as millstone grit. They have a series of vertical grooves pitted on the surface, which is the result of natural weathering - not human carving as is often supposed. They were most likely quarried from Plumpton Rocks, just south of Knaresborough. If this is their origin then they would have been hauled nine miles to get them to their current location. The smallest of them weighs 25 tons, so it would have taken a team of 200 people about six months to make the journey, using ropes of wood fibre and wooden sledges on some sort of track.