Devil's Dyke is a deep V-shaped

dry valley A dry valley may develop on many kinds of permeable rock, such as limestone, chalk, sand stone and sandy terrains that do not regularly sustain surface water flow. Such valleys do not hold surface water because it sinks into the permeable bed ...

on the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills in the south-eastern coastal counties of England that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the ...

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

in southern England, north-west of

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

. It is managed by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

, and is also part of the Beeding Hill to Newtimber Hill

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

. Devil's Dyke was a major local tourist attraction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is now a popular viewpoint and site for walking,

model aircraft A model aircraft is a physical model of an existing or imagined aircraft, and is built typically for display, research, or amusement. Model aircraft are divided into two basic groups: flying and non-flying. Non-flying models are also termed s ...

flying and

hang gliding Hang gliding is an air sports, air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised, fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium al ...

. The South Downs Way passes the site.

Geological history

The Dyke is formed in rocks of the

Chalk Group The Chalk Group (often just called the Chalk) is the lithostratigraphic unit (a certain number of rock strata) which contains the Upper Cretaceous limestone succession in southern and eastern England. The same or similar rock sequences occur ac ...

which originated as marine sediments during the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

period. It is a misconception common amongst local residents of Brighton that the valley was formed by some kind of glacial action, the myth of a 'glacier' being a misunderstanding of accounts such as this one from the ''Encyclopaedia of Brighton'' by Timothy Carder (1990):

"In reality the 300-foot-deep valley was carved by tremendous amounts of water running off the Downs during the last Ice Age when large amounts of snow thawed and the frozen chalk prevented any further absorption; erosion was aided by the freeze-thaw cycle and the valley was deepened by the 'sludging' of the saturated chalk.".

The Devil's Dyke V-shaped

is the result of

solifluction Solifluction is a collective name for gradual processes in which a mass moves down a slope ("mass wasting") related to freeze-thaw activity. This is the standard modern meaning of solifluction, which differs from the original meaning given to i ...

and river

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

. More than 14,000 years ago, the area experienced an intensely cold

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

(but not glacial conditions). Snowfields capped the South Downs. Permafrost conditions meant that the

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

was permanently frozen. In summer, the snowfields melted and saturated the top layer of soil, because the water could not permeate the frozen chalk underneath. Waterlogged material situated above the permafrost slid down the gradient, removing material by friction, exposing deeper layers of frozen chalk. When the

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

ended, the snowfields covering the South Downs melted, and rivers formed across Sussex. The Devil's Dyke valley was completed by one such river.

Geography

The hills surrounding the valley rise to and offer views of the

, The Weald, and – on a clear day – the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

. It is the site of ramparts, all that remain of an

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

hillfort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

, and a pub. It is a popular local beauty spot for the

Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority area, ceremonially in East Sussex, England. There are multiple villages alongside the seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove in the district. It is administe ...

area, being an easy journey of just a few miles.

History

Ancient history

Before and after the

, Devil's Dyke was used as a defensive site. This was probably because of its commanding view of the surrounding terrain, and also its steep edges surrounded by large expanses of flat land. In the Iron Age, Devil's Dyke was an important site. All the vegetation was scraped off the white chalk, leaving Devil's Dyke as an impressive monument to both attract and intimidate the populace.

Victorian times

In late Victorian times Devil's Dyke became a tourist attraction, complete with a fairground, two bandstands, an observatory and a camera obscura, all served by a branchline from

Hove Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...

. During its heyday, Devil's Dyke was a huge attraction for the Victorians, with 30,000 people visiting on Whit Monday in 1893. * From 1887 to 1938 a single-track railway branch line operated from near Aldrington in

to The Dyke railway station, the current Dyke Farm location, to transport sightseers to the foot of the hill. * From 1894 to 1909 a cable car operated across the valley, covering a distance of , suspended above the valley floor. * From 1897 to 1909 the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

funicular A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep grade (slope), slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to ...

Steep Grade Railway rose from near Poynings to the northern edge of the hillfort. Traces remain of all three ventures, including the remains of concrete pylon supports for the cable car system.

Current use

Devil's Dyke has also become a popular site for hang gliding and (more recently) paragliding.https://www.shgc.org.uk/files/siteguides/SHGC%20Sites%20Guide%202018a.pdf

Folklore

Local folklore explains the dyke as the work of the Devil. The most popular form of the story begins with the conversion of the

Kingdom of Sussex The Kingdom of the South Saxons, today referred to as the Kingdom of Sussex (; from , in turn from or , meaning "(land or people of/Kingdom of) the South Saxons"), was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the Heptarchy of Anglo-Saxon Englan ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. Sussex was the last of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to embrace the new faith, and its conversion infuriated the Devil as he thereby lost his last stronghold in England. He therefore resolved to exterminate its inhabitants by digging a trench through the South Downs so that the sea would flood through and drown the people of the Sussex Weald. The hermit

Cuthman of Steyning Saint Cuthmann of Steyning (8th century), also spelt Cuthman, was an Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon hermit and church-builder. Life Birth In the biography of the saint in the ''Acta Sanctorum'' which was preserved at the Abbey of Fécamp in Normand ...

found out about the Devil's intentions and came up with a plan to stop him. He proposed a wager - if the Devil could complete the trench in a single night he could have Cuthman's soul, but if he failed then he would have to abandon the project and leave the people of Sussex alone for good. The Devil accepted the wager and began work that night, working his way southward from Poynings toward the sea. The mounds of earth thrown up by his digging formed the nearby hills of Chanctonbury Ring,

Cissbury Ring Cissbury Ring is an biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Worthing in West Sussex. It is owned by the National Trust and is designated a Scheduled monument for its Neolithic flint mine and Iron Age hillfort. Cissbury Ring is ...

, Mount Caburn and Firle Beacon, and the

in the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

. At first Cuthman bided his time, but shortly after midnight he displayed a lit candle in his window while also startling a cock so that it would start crowing in alarm. The light and the sound of the cock crowing convinced the Devil that dawn was about to break, and thus that he had lost his wager with Cuthman. He therefore ran away in disgrace, leaving behind the unfinished trench henceforth known as Devil's Dyke. At the bottom of the Dyke are two humps, known as 'the Devil's Graves', under which the Devil and his wife are supposedly buried. Legend has it that if a person runs backwards seven times around these humps whilst holding their breath, the Devil will appear.

References

External links

National Trust Information on Devil's Dyke

''Country File'' video

{{coord, 50.885, -0.205, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Landforms of West Sussex History of West Sussex Tourist attractions in West Sussex Ancient dikes West Sussex folklore Linear earthworks National Trust properties in West Sussex