Ambling across the south-downs, a large stretch of chalk hills, valleys and woodland,

just to the north of the south coast of England, you might chance upon a peculiar collection

of beach trees, perched atop a prominent spot on its northern edge.

The trees, first planted by local landowner Charles Goring in 1760, but later replaced

after being destroyed by a hurricane in 1987, marked the spot of an ancient circular structure

believed to date back to the Bronze Age.

Known today as Chanktonbury Ring, the original purpose of the site remains unknown, with suggestions

ranging from the mundane, such as it having been first used as little more than a livestock

enclosure, to the sublime, with others believing instead that it may well have been some kind

of religious or mystical shrine.

Some however, have claimed it to have been used for an altogether different purpose, and

that the Ring had in fact been created by the Devil.

A worthy feature you might say, for an area of England, long thought to have hosted

more than its fair share of unexplained phenomena.

Some have put the bizarre activity that seems to plague this quiet part of the countryside

in the county of Sussex, to a curse placed on the local village of Clapham by a disgruntled

resident back in 1288, after losing a legal case against a local person.

Robert LaFolkener was said to have damned the accursed village and all its meager holdings,

stating that the priesthood of a false god would soon come to know its fate.

Others however, argue it had begun a long time before, with Chanktonbury believed to be

the site of an otherworldly power, being thought to have once been the location of a former

druidic temple, used for ancient and mysterious rituals.

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