The Devil's Ring and Finger Standing Stones View all content for The Devil's Ring and Finger

Always nice to see a rock with hole in it, makes a break from the norm..... walking in a south westerly direction away from the site the land sweeps gently down to lake and river with a small number of copse woods islands surrounded by heavily ploughed farmland. after closer inspection the copse cointained a fair amount of good sized stones, some it seems could have been placed here and are possibly in there original position while the majority prosumably dragged into the edge of the field (if indeed that was the case). The nearest copse to the Ring and Finger had the greatest density of what appeared to be standing stones within it and a possible small circle with evidence of more stones running off south south westerly(ish) visible now only in the isolated (fenced off) patches of scrub and copse. A couple of hundered yards away down towards the lake, almost underneath the main house there is a huge mound just away from the shoreline, on the top is a worked stone of a different composite lying on its side. I must also include here 1 (or2) stone(s) lying midway between the mound and the ring and finger (which I have posted in the image section) . There are also a few humps and tumps about on both sides of the river. Getting here can be tricky without an O.S. map. There are no signs posts. When you arrive into Norton in Hale from mucklestone drive past the pub and as the road bends right turn left into Forge lane/St/road , find somewhere to park and get onto the footpath (on the left where the houses finish) which eventually leads upto the site (about 5/10 mins walk). All we had was a road atlas which got us within locality of the nearest pub - Once inside asking for Local Knowledge, (where I resisted the question "does norton inhale?") the guy behind the bar repeatedly told us, "In all my 27 years I have never found the need to go up there myself" - "Its just a rock in a field" (which answered my question - obviously he didn't). But don't be put off by my tale of Norman the barman - in - the only pub - of the prettiest - best looked after - village in Shropshire.. NB* The farmer told us of a Roman road which ran near by and of the stately homes 18th century owners/ground keepers fondness of landscape gardening. That coupled with the many years of heavy farming (in my opinion) its little wonder that what is left here is probably a very tiny fragment of its former self.

Posted by broen 17th February 2003ce Edited 17th May 2003ce

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