The Devil in the Forest

To my mind, the Devil gets far too much credit for spectacular places in our green and pleasant land. To name but a few that I've visited over the years, there's The Devil's Cauldron (Lydford Gorge, Devon), The Devil's Punchbowl (Surrey), Devil's Dyke (Sussex) and Devil's Bridge (Ceredigion).

This photo (right) recently appeared in the Facebook group Old Industry and History of the Forest of Dean.  It's one of the many scowles that are unique to the Forest – clefts and hollows in the limestone that have been exploited over many centuries for their iron. I've blogged about them before (here) but knew nothing about this spectacular-looking one, before seeing it on Facebook.

A few days ago I set out to find the place and, lest I should be accosted by some prowling, demonic being, took my aunt Sarah with me. A short forest track leads in from the Lydney - Bream road to an area shown as The Scowles on the 1:25000 OS map. In marked contrast to the scowles in Noxon Park, the enlightened folk of Lydney Park Estates have not encircled the deep pits with high fences, so we were free to explore.

On her own admission, Aunt Sarah isn't the most athletic of souls but she did well to clamber into the first scowle, then took this picture of me.

So impressive were the rock formations here that I initially thought I'd found The Devil's Chapel, but my map showed it to be further along the track, so onward we pressed. 

And here it is, looking more like a Forest Cathedral than a Devil's Chapel. One thing my photos don't clearly show are the deep pits to the left and right of this tall stump. "Do be careful!" shouted an anxious Auntie from high above me, and indeed I was. I certainly wouldn't wish to scramble out of the deepest of those pits. 

As well as a Devil's Chapel, we also have a Devil's Pulpit in the Forest but it's nowhere near his chapel!

That's Tintern Abbey, down beside the River Wye, and I have it on good authority that The Devil used to stand on the rock in the foreground and preach to the monks, tempting them to abandon their righteous lifestyle. What a cunning, evil creature he is!

When Lucy and I visited the spot on a baking-hot day in 2014 there was no devil, just a kind passer-by who took this photo for us.