The Devils Quoits

One evening in mid-July, I made a visit the Devils Quoits at Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire. This is a stone circle, or albeit a reconstructed one, to the north of the river Thames. It’s situated between a lake and a managed landfill site; an environment created by gravel extraction. This is not the healthiest of places to visit due to the ongoing landfill activities – so be warned!

Heavy machinery working on landfill, which is near the Devil's Quoits.

For the avoidance of doubt, this is not the same Devils Quoits which is associated with the video game ‘Assassin’s Creed’. See link: https://assassinscreed.fandom.com/wiki/Devil%27s_Quoits. It’s in the wrong county for a start!

The Devils Quoits folklore

The folklore associated with this stone circle (the real monument and not the Assassin’s Creed one) is that the Devil played a game of quoits with a beggar, for the beggar’s sole. During this game of quoits, the Devil through stones which formed this henge.

The Quoits has had a precarious history. The stone circle virtually disappeared thanks to encroaching uses: agriculture, a military aerodrome and gravel extraction. Yet thanks to archaeologists, the monument was reconstructed at the turn of the twenty-first century.

In this podcast, I take you on my journey to the Devils Quoits, and share a conversation with a fellow visitor.

Weird Walk book

The book ‘Weird Walk: Wanderings and Wonderings through the British Ritual Year’, provided much of the information for this episode. In addition, it investigates other places, such as White Horse Hill and Avebury Stone Circle. The writing is thorough and some of the images are out of this world! Well worth having in your book collection