MysteryHidden
The Double Sunset
The sun goes down twice at midsummer.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- A steep hill with a long northern slope
- Legend from
- Plot (1686); local observation
- Best time
- Summer solstice
- Tone
- Wondrous
At midsummer the sun goes down behind the Cloud, then rises again and sets twice.
The Cloud is a hill on the Cheshire–Staffordshire border, above Bosley. Each year at the summer solstice, a double sunset could be seen against it from the churchyard of St Edward the Confessor in Leek. In clear weather the sun sets on the summit, partly reappears from the steep northern slope, and then sets a second and final time on the horizon. Robert Plot first recorded the sight in his Natural History of Stafford-shire in 1686, though people may have watched it for centuries before. Trees now block the old view from the churchyard. It can still be seen from Lowe Hill, on the edge of Leek.
One sourceOnly one written account of this legend has been found so far.