MysteryHidden
Chanctonbury Ring
He brings soup. The price is your soul.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Hill fort ramparts with a ring of beech trees
- Legend from
- Local legend
- Tone
- Spooky
Seven laps anticlockwise round the beeches and the Devil arrives with soup. He wants your soul for it.
Chanctonbury Ring is an Iron Age hill fort on the Downs above Washington and Steyning, famous for the ring of beech trees Charles Goring planted in 1760. Local legend says the Devil made it. Run seven times anticlockwise round the clump and he will appear and offer you a bowl of soup in exchange for your soul. Frank R. Williams argued in Sussex Notes and Queries in 1944 that the story came from pagan ritual.
One sourceOnly one written account of this legend has been found so far.