Devil's Arrows
The Devil's Arrows are three aligned standing stones located outside Boroughbridge in North Yorkshire, England, near to where the A168 road crosses the River Ure.
Site
The standing stone alignment known as the Devil's Arrows consists of some of the tallest standing stones in the United Kingdom. The southernmost of the three remaining stones is the second tallest in the UK. The monument is unusual in that it is located in a lowland setting.Erected during the Stone Age and distinctively grooved by millennia of rainfall, the tallest stone is in height, making this the second tallest menhir in the United Kingdom after the tall Rudston Monolith in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The other two stones are and tall. It is thought that the alignment originally included up to five stones. The English antiquarian William Camden mentioned four stones in his Britannia, noting that "one was lately pulled down by some that hoped, though in vain, to find treasure". One of the stones, displaced during an unsuccessful search for treasure during the 18th century, was used as the base for a nearby bridge over a river. The stones are composed of Millstone Grit, the most likely source of which is Plumpton Rocks, south of Knaresborough, and about from where the stones stand today.
The construction pits for the erection of the stones remain buried beneath the ground.
The outer stones are away from the central stone and form an almost straight, running NNW–SSE.
The stones have been designated as a scheduled monument since 1923.
Setting
The stones are part of a prehistoric complex concentrated around the River Ure. They form part of a ritual landscape which includes henge monuments and tumuli extending to the north of the site. They are part of a wider Neolithic complex on the Ure-Swale plateau which incorporates the Thornborough Henges.It is thought that they may have been arranged to align with the southernmost summer moonrise.