The Devil's Arrows Took the Long Way

Three stone pillars in a Yorkshire field are standing on the wrong rock. The Devil's Arrows, near Boroughbridge, include stones rising roughly 23 feet (7 meters) and weighing many tons. Yet the sandstone beneath them is a different kind from the stones themselves. Wherever these giants came from, somebody had to move them.

Researchers pressed sticky tape against the stones for five minutes at a time, collecting tiny mineral grains without drilling into the protected monument. Those grains contained zircon and apatite crystals whose ages could be measured. Different sandstone deposits contain different mixtures of crystal ages, giving each a geological fingerprint.

All three stones matched one another, and their zircon fingerprints pointed to Brimham Rocks, a weathered gritstone outcrop about 11 miles (18 kilometers) west. But Plumpton Rocks, just eight miles (13 kilometers) away, had long been considered a possible source. Its fingerprint didn't match. Reconstructions of ancient ice flow also made it unlikely that glaciers had delivered the stones. The researchers concluded that people probably brought them from Brimham.

Why go farther for something so heavy? The researchers suggest Brimham's bizarre, naturally sculpted rock formations may have held spiritual significance. Its natural cracks might also have made it easier to separate enormous blocks. Mineral grains from a nearby bridge and monument were consistent with the same source, supporting historical accounts that some of the missing stones were reused in later construction.

Archaeologists place the Devil's Arrows in the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, but without fresh excavation, their exact age remains unknown. So does the reason their builders chose a more distant source when another was available closer to home.

Plumpton Rocks sat closer and lost anyway. If a committee decided that, the minutes have not survived.

Read the full story at Proceedings of the Royal Society A, September 9, 2026

Hot Take: The Slate Rock and Gravel Company would like to know who approved the extra shipping costs. Mr. Flinstone has denied involvement.