There've been multiple claims over the centuries of the phenomena that are known as the Devil's footprints. There've been claims of such mysterious hoof-like prints in multiple parts of the world, with many different variations of stories and just as many theories on what they could really be. Because there's so many different stories I'm going to stick to the more common, well known stories that I could find information on. While each of these legends share the similarities of the 'hoof-prints', each one defers in their own way. Some a little more crazy then the previous.
Exe Estuary England: The Devil's Snow Tracks
In February 1855, around Exe Estuary in East and South Devon, England after a heavy snowfall, trails of hoof-like prints appeared overnight in the snow covering a total distance of 40 to 100 miles. The hoof-prints were suggested to be the tracks of the Devil with multiple theories circling the incident. The hoof-prints measured about four inches long by three inches across and between eight to sixteen inches apart, and for the most part where in a single file line. There was more than 30 locations across Devon and a couple in Dorset that reported hoof-prints alike. Houses, rivers, haystacks and other obstacles were traveled stright over with prints even appearing on the tops of snow covered roofs and high walls, making these track even more eerie.
The May 26th, 1855 issue of Bell's Life in Sydney published in its Miscellaneous Extracts column a "Weekly Dispatch" dated February 18th:
"It appears on Thursday last night, there was a very heavy snowfall in the neighborhood of Exeter and the South of Devon. On the following morning the inhabitants of the above towns were surprised at discovering the footmarks of some strange and mysterious animal endowed with the power of ubiquity, as the footprints were to be seen in all kinds of unaccountable places – on the tops of houses and narrow walls, in gardens and court-yards, enclosed by high walls and pailings, as well in open fields. The superstitious go so far as to believe that they are the marks of Satan himself; and that great excitement has been produced among all classes may be judged from the fact that the subject has been descanted on from the pulpit. The impressions of the foot closely resembled that of a donkey's shoe, and measured from an inch and a half to (in some instances) two and a half inches across. Here and there it appeared as if cloven, but in the generality of the steps the shoe was continuous, and, from the snow in the centre remaining entire, merely showing the outer crest of the foot, it must have been concave."
The area in which the prints appeared extended from Exmouth up to Topsham, and across the Exe Estuary to Dawlish and Teighnmouth. Some sources also claimed that the hoof-prints even appeared as far south as Totnes and Torquay, and the furthest report was in Weymouth (Dorset) and Lincolnshire. But there is little direct evidence of the phenomenon, and the only known documents where found after the publication during 1950 of an article in the Transactions of the Devonshire Association asking for further information regarding the entire event. Because of this discovery, they were able to track down a collection of papers belonging to Reverend H.T. Ellacombe, who was the vicar of Clyst St. George during the 1850s. In these papers included letters that were addressed to the vicar from his friends. One letter was a draft from Reverend G.M Musgrove, the vicar of Withycombe Raleigh, to The Illustrated London News and the draft was marked 'not for publication' with several apparent tracings of the hoof-prints. A man names Mike Dash collated all the available source material into a paper entitled The Devil's Hoofmarks: Source Material on the Great Devon Mystery of 1855 which was published in Fortean Studies during 1994.
While over the years many explanations have been made for the incident, with some investigators being skeptical that the tracks really extended for more than a hundred miles, and their reasoning was that no one would've been able to follow that entire course in a single day. But if we are to believe this was truly the Devil believing he walked over a hundred miles in a day doesn't seem so far fetched. Another reason for skepticism, as indicated by Joe Nickell, is that the eye witness descriptions of the hoof-prints varied from person to person. In his Fortean Studies article, Mike Dash concluded that there was no one source for the hoofprints, stating that some of the tracks were probably hoaxes, while others were made by common animals such as donkeys, horses and ponies. He did admit, though, that these cannot explain all of the reported hoof marks. Regardless if they truly were the Devil's tracks or not this phenomenon is eerie either way.
Ipswich England: The Reverend Vs. the Devil
Before we get started into our next Devil footprint, a little background on Ipswich England, which is one of England's oldest towns. Ipswich is a large port town and borough in the county of Suffolk, England, and is the largest settlement in the county. It's claimed to even be the oldest still-continuing town to have been established and developed by the English, with continuous settlement since the early Anglo-Saxon times. In other words it's a very, very old town with a lot of history in it. Ipswich was first recorded during the medieval period as Gippeswic and Yppswyche. The town has been of great importance to the Kingdom of England throughout its long history, particularly in trade due to the town's historical dock, Ipswich Waterfront. It is the second largest population centre in East Anglia, and is around 80 miles northeast of London, England. It's divided into various quarters, with the town centre and the waterfront drawing the most footfall. Around 700 AD, Frisian potters from the Netherlands area settled in Ipswich and set up the first large-scale potteries in England since Roman times. Their wares were traded far across England and the industry was unique to Ipswich for over 200 years. Even parts of the ancient roads still survive in its now more modernized streets.
Now to the phenomenon of the imprinted hoof-print that's on a rock located in front of the First Church in Ipswich, which is a georgical formation known to the people as the footprint of the Devil. According to the legend, the Devil left the footprint in early October 1740 after wrestling with the English evangelist George Whitefield. Yes, you read that right, they were wrestling. It gets even better. One of the main characters of this legend is young, energetic, and extremely cross-eyed, Reverend George Whitefield. He was a widely proclaimed Reverend who was on a tour of New England, which had been only his second trip to the church in Ipswich.
Some more background history, at the end of the 17th Century, remorse from the Salem Witchcraft Trials saw a reduction in churchgoing accompanied by the birth of the Age of Reason, which challenged institutionalized religion and legitimacy of the Bible. Even among the faithful, there was complacency with worship but also dissatisfaction with the new era of rationalism. By the 1730s, the stage was all set for the renewal of Calvinist religiosity which ended up being known as the Great Awakening. In 1740, when Reverend Whitefield, the vibrant charismatic young minister from Britain, made his first trip to the colonies, he preached almost every day for months where thousands of people gathered around to see him, making him the greatest celebrity of the era. He first came through Ipswich on his way to Maine and decided to preach to a great assembly. In a journal found, he had entered, "The Lord gave me freedom and there was a great melting in the congregation."
When he later returned to the town, he preached on an early fall day and he had a long and energetic sermon of such great intensity that his voice could be hear for miles around, or as told by the town's people. Thousands flocked to hear his preaches but with the sanctuary being insufficient in size for such a gathering, Reverend Whitefield decided to make the ledge outside of the church his stage. Legend says that the listeners were "struck with an awful sense of sin" while he was giving his preach.
In one version of the legend, behind the pulpit in the church was a large curved free-standing mirror, the origin and purpose of which has never known. Religiosity may have waned but superstition still held its grip strong on the population at the time. Some folks believed that on Sunday morning, the Devil would hide behind or inside of the mirror and glare at people seated before him. But there are many superstitions regarding the Devil and mirrors we won't get into just yet.
The Reverend Whitefield's resounding voice outside of the walls, complete with condemnation of Satan and threats of fire and brimstone must have infuriated the Devil to his breaking point. The words were harsher than he could bear and, as the legend goes, he burst forth before the startled masses that were all gathered on the hill listening to the sermon. What happens next has been told with many variations, but it's agreed by all that the Devil and the young Reverend went at it, wrestling like maniacs, pushing and shoving each other back and forth. The preacher at some point ran into the church, and soon they were face-to-face at the pinnacle of the steeple with the horrified congregation watching below. Whitefield's only weapon was his commanding voice, and so the esteemed pastor yelled at Satan. Accompanied perhaps by a push, the Devil was hurled to the rock below, where he landed on one foot and scrambled down the hill in terrified leaps and bounds, never to returned.
Apparently such a thing was such a common occurrence for Reverend Whitefield that he wrote modestly about it in his journal. Such as this entry, "Tuesday, Sept. 30, Preached at Ipswich about 10 in the morning to some Thousands; the Lord gave me Freedom, and there was great Melting in the Congregation.” News of his evangelicals prowess spread throughout America, and the "Great Awakening" gave rise to the Methodists, who built a church on the green with an even more massive steeple.
The pyroclastic rocks that protrude from the North Green were part of a volcanic arc near the South Pole about half a billion years ago. After drifting for hundreds of thousands of years the microcontinent known as Avalonia collided with the American continent, creating our section of eastern New England. During these thermal geological episodes, stratified layers of shale were superheated and compressed to give the rocks their gray featureless appearance, but over the millennia layers have naturally worn away and created the small deformations observed at Meeting House Green.
The first Meeting House for Linebrook Parish was build just inside the Rowley boundary on Leslie Road in 1743. Pulpit Rock is an outcropping that is about 20 feet high and about 50 yards north of Leslie Road near the site of the former church building.
During one of the important Church celebrations, Reverend George Whitefield preached to over two-thousand people, and because the congregation was too large for the small church, people sat outside to listen to his sermon he gave while standing on top of the huge rock. He gave an electrifying sermon about righteousness, temperance and the judgement to come. The church on Leslie Road was later moved to Linebrook Road and was replaced by the present Linebrook Church in 1848.
Now here is where the story gets really weird, since it wasn't already. Because Reverend Whitefield was received so well, he decided to make New England his home. He died on Sunday, September 30th, 1770 in Newburyport and is still buried there in a crypt under the pulpit at the Old South Church, which is the very church he planned to preach at the next day before his death. For the believers, Whitefield's body was a sacred relic and in 1829 a visitors from England managed to steal a bust of Reverend Whitefield, as well as one of the arms from his skeleton. The thief was never apprehended, but the items stolen were anonymously returned twenty years late in a small wooden box. Around two-thousand people joined the Newburyport procession for the return of Whitefield's missing parts, except for his mummified thumb which is on display at the Methodist Archives Center in Madison, New Jersey because why not I guess.
In 1834, William B, Fowle created a plaster skull out of Reverence Whitefield's skull and plaster of a bible in Boston. He then sent the skull anonymously to London to a leading expert in phrenology, a pseudoscience that is now discredited. In a letter contained in the church's archives to a committee overseeing the casting of Whitefield's skull, Mr. Fowle remarked, "Perhaps it will interest you to know that those of us who have studied the character of Whitefield, and compared it with his skull, find so great a coincidence that our belief in phrenology is much strengthened. By placing the skull in a natural position, and drawing a vertical line from the orifice of the ear to the top of the head, you will find, what you rarely find in the head of a great good man, the larger part of the brain falls behind the ear. This indicates more feeling than intellect; and is not this the key to his wonderful power over others?” But now we know this was not the case and the legend that is Reverend George Whitefield taking on the Devil and wrestling will stay a phenomenon.
Keels, Newfoundland & Labrador
The legend of the Devil's Footprints has been an attraction for visitors to the community of Keels for a long time. The imprints in the rocks resemble a cloven, hoof-shaped footprint. These cavities continue to be a source of curiosity and bewilderment. Local stories claim the footprint's origins are supernatural and that the tracks are impressions left where the Devil had danced over Keels.
But some geological studies have shown that the footprints are most likely cavities left by eroded carbonate nodules. Now for a little science, the eroded carbonate nodules are called concretions, and have eroded out of the bedrock to from the cavities you can find in rocks today. They form early in the process that turns buried sediment into rock. As mineral cement, aka carbonate, is deposited in layers growing outward to form a central point. While there are many different ways to explain this geologic phenomenon, one popular suggestion is the decaying remains of an ancient organism. Once exposed to the elements, the concretions weathered out leaving the empty nodules.
This one was harder to find more details about. With many different variations it was difficult to find anything other then a few sentences stating that the legend was simple that of the Devil dancing over Keels.
References:
https://historicipswich.net/2023/01/06/the-devils-footprint/
https://historicipswich.net/2023/01/06/the-devils-footprint/
'Unsolved Mysteries - Bizarre Events That Have Puzzled The Greatest Minds' by Joel Levy, 2020
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