Devil's Humps, Stoughton

The Devil's Humps (also known as the Kings' Graves) are four Bronze Age barrows situated on Bow Hill on the South Downs near Stoughton, West Sussex.

[1] The Devil's Humps are counted among the most impressive round barrows surviving on the South Downs.

[1] The four barrows forming the Devil's Humps are all aligned and stand 3 to 4 metres (9.8 to 13.1 ft) high in spite of damage caused by early explorations.

[1] No records survive from these early excavations, so the precise date for the construction of the barrows is unknown.

It measures 28 by 26 metres (92 by 85 ft) (NS/EW), with the ditch having been filled in on the northwest side by the construction of a boundary bank.

[7] There are a number of other ancient remains around Bow Hill and in neighbouring Kingley Vale, including a number of cross dykes and other earthworks, settlement sites in the Vale itself, two Iron Age hill forts, one of which is Goosehill Camp, and several long barrows on Stoughton Down to the north.

[8] The Devil's Humps are linked to a body of folklore encompassing Kingley Vale on the southern approach to Bow Hill.

This folklore may have had its origin in a battle between the men of Chichester and the marauding Danes that is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as having taken place in AD 894:[9] And then when the raiding-army which had besieged Exeter turned back homewards, they raided up in Sussex near Chichester, and the garrison put them to flight and killed many hundred of them, and took some of their ships.50°53′35″N 0°50′11″W / 50.89306°N 0.83639°W / 50.89306; -0.83639