The Devil's Hoofprints

 

    The night of the 8th February 2015 was the 160th anniversary of a very strange event, that left the people of South Devon wondering whether the Devil himself had paid them a visit.

    Mysterious hoof-shaped prints, were said to have appeared overnight in heavy snowfall and were discovered by early risers on the morning of the 9th. The prints which were one in front of the other approximately eight and a half inches apart appeared to have been made by a biped. They were said to have covered an area of between forty to one hundred miles, passing over rooftops and through walls. One set of prints were said to have bridged a two mile span of the river Exe, continuing on the other side as if the creature had walked over the water. This was all supposed to have happened over a six hour period, which would have meant that the perpetrator would have had to be moving at speeds up to seventeen miles per hour.

    The people waited to see if the footprints would return over the next few days, but they did not. After a few days the news spread to the national press, including the Times and the Illustrated News, which brought more accounts to light. According to the newspaper reports, the prints stretched over a long distance passing through solid walls and haystacks as though they were nonmaterial. Leading to an excessive amount of speculation as to the cause and raising the interest of several scientists.

     Most of the Southern villages of Devon, from Totnes to Topsham, seemed to have been inundated with the prints. There was a true feeling of unease throughout the population especially when some of the clergy suggested that the prints belonged to the Devil, who was roaming the countryside looking for sinners. One might expect that the churches were very full the following Sunday.

    Other explanations included escaped kangaroos, badgers, swans, otters and even a trailing rope from a hot air balloon sailing overhead. These could explain some of the tracks made that night but not all, as there would have to have been several similar incidences occurring at the same time.

    There have been several sightings over the years of similar prints from different parts of the world. A report by Ralph of Coggeshall, a Cistercian monk and English chronicler, tells how  "on the 19th of July 1205 strange hoof print appeared after a violent electrical storm".

    In May 1840 a surveying party on an expedition led by James Clark Ross to Kerguelen Island reported finding similar hoofprints in the snow. They followed the trail of prints until it disappeared on the rocky soil. They reported being intrigued by this, as no creature native to the island could leave such prints.

    Also in 1840, a story appeared on page one of the Times dated March 14th which reported footprints being found among the high mountains in the Glenorchy area of Scotland. These prints had appeared several times during that winter and the previous one. They stretched for about twelve miles and because of their depth were thought to be made by a beast of considerable size. It was stated that its walk was not of the generality of quadrupeds.

If this is so, then are these marks produced by some kind of natural phenomenon as yet unknown?

    More recently the Daily Mail carried a report of a seventy six year old grandmother of Woolsery Devon who claimed that, on July 5th 2009, she found footprints in the shape of a cloven hoof in her snow covered garden.

    The extent of the footprints may have been exaggerated at the time, and may well have been the result of freak atmospheric conditions.

so I ask you

Did the Devil visit Devon that night in 1855? Or is there another explanation?

©Brenda Diskin, published in Devon Life magazine.

This article appeared in The Times of Friday February 16, 1855.