On my recent trip to North Yorkshire, I visited a church yard and found standing among the headstones a stunning, slender piece of rock standing at just under 8 meters tall and 2 meters wide. Mark told me that it’s known as the Devil’s Finger and my interest grew.
Devil’s Finger in Rudston
A popular myth tells the story that the Devil was outraged at the locals for building a church on the Pagan sacred hill. He hurled this huge rock or monolith like a javelin at the church to destroy it, but by divine intervention the stone was deflected and landed in its present position, hence the name, Devil’s Finger.
Do you think that the Rudston Monolith looks phallic?
Well, people believe that in pagan times, some form of ritual was held at the monolith, or that it was a prehistoric, pagan place of worship. In the Dark Ages, the Christian’s came along and built their first church next to the stone.
Rudston Monolith Facts
- Tallest standing stone in Britain
- Ground level the circumference is 5 meters
- An excavation in the late 18th century by Sir William Strickland suggests the stone below ground is as great as its height
- It’s estimated to weigh 40 tonnes and is made of moorland grit stone
- The monolith can be found in All Saints Church graveyard in Rudston, Yorkshire
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