The Devil’s Jumps

Also known as:
Treyford Hill
Nearest town:
Petersfield (9km WNW)
OS reference:
SU824173
OS sheet:
197
Latitude:
50° 56' 55.15 N
Longitude:
0° 49' 36.72 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of The Devil’s Jumps (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by A R Cane

Three of the barrows viewed from the South Downs way looking North West

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Aug 18, 2008
Image of The Devil’s Jumps (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by A R Cane

Looking South East back along the row from the middle barrow

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Aug 18, 2008
Image of The Devil’s Jumps (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by A R Cane

Panorama showing five of the barrows in their alignment with the setting sun at the summer solstice

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Aug 18, 2008
Image of The Devil’s Jumps (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by Cursuswalker

Looking South East from the top of one of the Devil’s Jumps. August 1999

Image credit: Cursuswalker
Cursuswalker
Cursuswalker Jan 3, 2003

Articles

The Devil’s Jumps

Cursuswalker
Cursuswalker Jan 3, 2003

An impressively sized Round-Barrow group that meets the South Downs Way at a right angle on the Cocking to Buriton stretch.

This is quite a remote section of the Way, so you have a fairly even choice of routes and can more or less guarantee peace once at the site.
Either walk East along the Way from the Harting Hill car park for about 4 miles, the more picturesque option which also passes Beacon Hill and Pen Hill, or West from Cockinghill car park for about 3 miles, which is probably the less tiring route.

There is an information sign near the barrows.

Folklore

The Devil’s Jumps
Barrow / Cairn Cemetery
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Dec 18, 2006

Perhaps Bryony’s tale comes originally from the version in ‘Sussex Local Legends’ by Jacqueline Simpson (Folklore, Vol. 84, No. 3). This contains a written version of that told by L.N. Candlin, in 1971, from her childhood recollections (c1915), and includes the same unusual word, ‘midriff’.

Folklore

The Devil’s Jumps
Barrow / Cairn Cemetery
B
bryony Feb 15, 2003

They got the name from a local tale about how the Devil met his match in Thor. Thor was resting on Treyford Hill nearby when the Devil began to jump from one barrow to another, the noise woke Thor who told him to clear off. The Devil started to taunt Thor saying he was too old to jump like that himself. The irritated Thor scored a direct hit with a stone just as his visitor was mid jump, hitting him in the midriff. The Devil took off vowing never to return. In other versions it is Thor who gets the stone thrown at him

Sites within 20km of The Devil’s Jumps

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