Were The Devil’s Footprints made by the Devon Devil?

On February 8, 1855, residents of a coastal region of Devon, England, were puzzled and frightened by a series of weird footprints left in a newly fallen snow.

These hoofprints were about four inches long, and they formed a single line, as if made by a creature with one or two legs rather than four. The prints were spaced exactly 8.5 inches apart. People who examined them claimed they were unlike the prints of any known animal.

Most amazing, the line of hoofprints passed right over walls, fences, haystacks, and even the roofs of houses! And they were found in many towns in the region. Whoever or whatever had made the marks covered a distance of some 100 miles that night, and even crossed a river more than a mile wide.

No sensible explanation for the mysterious hoofprints was ever put forth, and no animal was ever found whose prints matched these marks. Many people in the Devon region had their own explanation for the marks.

They claimed that the hoofprints had been made by the devil, and for a long time afterwards, they were afraid to go out of their houses at night!