Devil
The Devil's Pothole
A Wonder of the Peak with the Devil at its foot.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- A fenced open shaft on a limestone hillside
- Legend from
- Folk tradition; Hobbes 1636
- Tone
- Eerie
Hobbes called it a Wonder of the Peak. The locals said the Devil lived at the bottom.
Eldon Hole is a deep, open pothole on the side of Eldon Hill, between Peak Forest and Castleton. At 55 metres it is the deepest pothole in the area. The philosopher Thomas Hobbes named it as one of the Seven Wonders of the Peak in 1636, and folk tradition says it is the home of the Devil. William Wood, retelling the Allan and Clara murder in 1862, wrote that people thought the murdered couple had been thrown into Elden Hole. The hole sits on open hillside near working quarries, reached on foot from Peak Forest.