S05E33 - The Devil Went Down to Devon

MonsterTalk

Monster House LLC

Natural Sciences, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2026

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the morning of February 9, 1855, residents across south Devon, England, discovered strange hoof-shaped tracks in the snow. The prints - about 4 inches long, 3 inches wide, and spaced roughly 8 inches apart in single file - appeared to have been left by a biped with a donkey-like hoof. Reports came in from more than 30 locations across the county. Within days, the Illustrated London News published a letter from a correspondent calling himself "South Devon" that would define the legend for generations: a continuous 100-mile trail, identical prints in every parish, passage over rooftops and through haystacks, a crossing of the two-mile-wide River Exe. The Devil, some locals whispered, had walked through Devon.

In this episode, Blake, Karen, and Matt dig into the original sources, trace how the story was embellished over 170 years of retelling, and examine the many theories - from wood mice to Romani conspiracies - that have been offered to explain the Great Devon Mystery.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Monster House Presents.
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0:51.3	From the Western Luminary and Family Newspaper for Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, and Dorset,
0:57.5	13th February, 1855.
1:02.2	Dullish, mysterious. Since the recent snowstorms, some animal has left marks on the snow
1:09.1	that have driven a great many inhabitants from their propriety
1:12.3	and caused an uproar of commotion among the inhabitants in general.
1:16.8	The markings, to say the least about them, are very singular.
1:21.0	The footprint, if footprint it be, is about three and a half inches long by two and a half inches wide, exactly in shape like a
1:30.4	donkey's hoof. The length of the stride is about a foot apart, very regular, and is evidently
1:36.4	done by some two-footed animal. What renders the matter more difficult of solution is that
1:43.2	gardens with walls 12 feet high have been trodden over
	...

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