The Devil's Quoits

A strange standing stone circle or henge near Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire. Some sources place it number three in Britain after Stonehenge and Avebury. Being of antiquity it was around in the Roman era but was down to three stones by the start of WWII. The whole area was levelled to construct an airfield for use during the war. After the war the airfield was abandoned and gradually decayed. Many of the buildings including an old petrol pump are still to be seen.

The area is now a major source of gravel extraction. The pits thus formed are either left as fishing lakes or more recently used for landfill. Planning permission is granted on the understanding that the area is reinstated when landfill is completed. The current contractor has not only landscaped the surface but re-erected the henge as archaeologists assume it appeared in Roman times. To this end they have found the three "original" stones and supplemented them with new similar stone quarried locally.

The re-constructed henge consists of a 115m diameter bank and internal 2m deep ditch, with entrances to the east and west. The 75m diameter stone circle occupying the interior has 28 conglomerate stones, with an additional stone standing slightly offset to the south.

The Quoits The Quoits Photo: John Eyre

The site derives its name from a formation myth. Folklore tells how the devil was playing a game of quoits one Sunday, but was chastised by God for defiling the day of rest. In anger, the devil cast aside his quoits, throwing them as far as he was able. Where one quoit fell, the henge now stands.

The quoits at GR SP 4112/0475 can either be accessed from the end of the road to the Recycling and Waste Centre" at SP 4086/0447 where there is a permissive path (the shorter walk) or from a footpath going west immediately south of Stanton Harcourt village SP 4156/0540.

John Eyre