The Devil's Quoits () is a

henge There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three is that they feature a ring-shaped bank and ditch, with the ditch inside the bank. Because the internal ...

and

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being built from 3000 BC. The be ...

to the south of the village of

Stanton Harcourt Stanton Harcourt is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about southeast of Witney and about west of Oxford. The parish includes the hamlet of Sutton, north of the village. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 960. Arch ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The site is believed to be from the Neolithic Period, between 4000 and 5000 years old, and is a

Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. The Quoits were restored between 2002 and 2008, with stones which had been knocked over or had fallen over being re-erected, and the surrounding earthworks rebuilt.

Name

The name "Devil's Quoits" is associated with a legend that states that the Devil once played quoits with a beggar for his soul and won by flinging the great stones. Tradition has it that the Devil and his opponent were sitting on the top of Wytham Hill, several miles away, when they played their game – presumably on or near the site of the Swinford Farm trig point which provides a commanding view across the Thames Valley.

Description

The

is a major class II circle henge monument of Late Neolithic date. The henge ditch enclosed a circular area up to 120 metres (400') across, with opposed entrances facing almost due east and west. The northern half of the henge appears to have had a second enclosing ditch circuit. Within the henge was a

and a central stone setting which may have been put up after the henge had been in use for some time, in the Early Bronze Age. The stone circle had a slightly ovoid plan, with a maximum diameter of 79 metres (260'), and followed the same axis as the henge itself. It originally featured 36 stones, most of which were removed by the end of the Medieval period. The henge itself is at the centre of a complex of later prehistoric monuments including ring ditches and other possible mortuary enclosures. The henge had survived as a slight earthwork until

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, when it was levelled in advance of runway construction. There was only one stone standing in situ in 1940, while two others had been re-erected nearby. The site was seriously damaged by the construction of an airfield in 1940 which involved the construction of concrete runways and the levelling of a large area. The site has been further damaged by gravel extraction since then. Excavations carried out in advance of gravel extraction in 1972, 1973 and 1988 located a complete plan of the Devil's Quoits. Excavation of the ditch terminals indicated repeated use and deposition, with finds including hearths and animal and human bones.

Restoration

The Devil's Quoits were restored between 2002 and 2008, with stones being re-uprighted, and the surrounding earthworks re-built. The earthworks were restored to the approximate condition they had at the beginning of Roman times, when the ditch began to be filled with ploughsoil and the bank was eroding.The Devil's Work
", ''Archaeology'' Issue 107 July / August 2009 This was to ensure the preservation of the remaining Neolithic and Bronze Age deposits in the ditch. Soil had to be imported onto the site in order to re-form the bank. It was built up to 2 metres (6') high which is only around half its original height. Several of the standing stones had been unearthed during the archaeological excavations, where they had been buried in the ditch or within stoneholes. Others had been encountered during topsoil stripping or during quarrying operations. These were all re-erected in what may have been their original positions taking into account the fact that the largest uprights appear to have been near the two entrances to the circle. Twenty spaces remained which were filled with modern conglomerate blocks sourced from a nearby quarry at

Ducklington Ducklington is a village and civil parish on the River Windrush south of Witney in West Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,581. History Ducklington is one of the earliest Saxon parishes to be recorded in Oxfor ...

References

{{reflist Stone circles in Oxfordshire Scheduled monuments in Oxfordshire Henges