October 9, 2025 • 12 mins
In 1855, a quiet snowfall in Devon, England gave rise to one of history’s strangest unsolved mysteries. Strange hoof-shaped prints, cloven and single-file, appeared across fields, rivers, rooftops, and walls. Locals believed the Devil had walked among them. Was it a hoax, a bizarre natural phenomenon, or something even stranger? In this episode, we explore the chilling mystery of the Devil’s Footprints and the theories still debated today.
#unsolvedmystery, #paranormalhistory, #folklore, #truecrime, #weirdhistory, #devilsfootprints, #englishmysteries, #mysterypodcast, #historicalmysteries, #compactmysteries
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the CompactMysteries podcast from
(00:06):
CompactMysteries.com,the show where we try
to unravel a differentbite-sized mystery each
week, from bafflingdisappearances and strange
objects to unexplainedevents and mysterious places.
This is episode 46, TheMystery of the Devil's Footprints.
(00:30):
In the dead of night onthe 8th February 1855,
the quiet countryside of Devon,England was blanketed in fresh snow.
To the locals, it wasan ordinary midwinter
scene, until dawn brokeand they found something
extraordinary, a trailof hoof-shaped prints
stretching for miles across fields,rooftops, walls and even frozen rivers.
(00:50):
These were calledthe Devil's Footprints or
sometimes the Devil'sHoofmarks, an inexplicable
trace in the snow thathas baffled scientists,
folklorists and mysterylovers ever since.
The prints appeared suddenlyafter a heavy snowfall and by
morning they had stirred a mixof fear, fascination and uproar.
They were unlike anythingknown to local fauna
(01:12):
and traversed every kind ofobstacle with apparent impunity.
In some places the marksseemed to cross walls
or shingles, pass over drainpipes and runacross rooftops in single file, as though
the strange entity, or force, that madethem simply ignored gravity and geometry.
Estimates of how far theprints stretched vary widely.
(01:35):
Some say they covered40 miles, while others
suggest they may haveranged up to 100 miles
across the snow-covered landscape of eastand south Devon and possibly into Dorset.
Dozens of reports emergedfrom towns like Exmouth,
Topsham, Dawlish andTainmouth, describing
clovenhoof impressionsabout four inches long
and three inches wide, spacedbetween eight and sixteen inches apart.
(01:58):
Many villagers refusedto leave their homes
after dark, convinced the Devil himselfmight be roaming the countryside.
To this day the mystery endures.
What left those imprints?
And how could it havewalked over walls, rooftops,
rivers and fenceswithout breaking stride?
What makes the Devil'sfootprints especially
perplexing is not justtheir length but their path.
(02:21):
Unlike a creature walking a winding course,these prints often followed straight lines,
leaping over obstacles ratherthan navigating around them.
Farmers reported that stacks of hayor fences did not interrupt the tracks.
In some cases theprints stopped on one side
of an object and thenrestarted on the other,
with no visible disturbanceto the object itself.
(02:41):
In others footprints appeared onroofs and over the tops of walls.
There are even claimsthat some prints passed
through drainpipesas small as four inches
in diameter, though thoseaccounts are contested.
In various locationsthe marks were found
directly on either sideof doorways or cafes
or churchyards without any visibledisturbance to the intervening space.
(03:03):
The prints were almostalways in single file,
suggesting a humanoid orbipedal gait rather than a quadruped.
It was, to Victoriansensibilities, a demon
walking among them,and many baptised it so.
Over the decades a varietyof explanations have been
proposed, ranging fromplausible to far-fetched.
(03:25):
None has gained universal acceptance,but each adds colour to the mystery.
Hoax or human trickery.
One of the earliest andsimplest theories is that the prints
were made deliberately bypranksters or groups of people.
Some suggest stilts or improvised devicesmight have produced hoof-like marks.
(03:45):
Others propose that multiplecharacters coordinated
to create the trail acrossvillage after village.
Some have argued that the prints' neatnessand consistency suggest human design.
However, the scale and complexity ofthe prints complicate that explanation.
To create tracks over40 to 100 miles overnight,
skipping fences, crossingrivers and mounting
(04:06):
roofs while preservingcontinuity would
require an organisedeffort, speed and secrecy.
Many of the reported areaswere remote and dispersed.
The logistics alone make hoaxingthe entire phenomenon improbable.
Animal tracks and rodents.
Several animal-basedtheories have been advanced.
Among them, kangaroos,perhaps the most sensational.
(04:30):
Soon after news of the phenomenon spread,the Reverend G.M. Musgrave suggested a pair
of kangaroos might have escapedfrom a private menagerie in Sidmouth.
Kangaroos hop in ways thatcan leave prints reminiscent
of hooves and mightbound over small obstacles.
But kangaroos do notnaturally roam Devon and
they could hardly scalerooftops, cross-fencing
(04:50):
flawlessly or sustain printsover extensive snow terrain.
Musgrave later admitted that the kangarooidea was part humour, part distraction.
Rodents or mice.
Some researchers, suchas Mike Dash, proposed
that hopping rodentslike wood mice could
leave double-print marksthat resemble cloven hooves.
(05:11):
The idea is that whenthey hop, their hind feet
land close together, creatingpaired impressions on the ground.
Under certain snow conditions, particularlywhere thawing or refreezing occurs, these
may coalesce into shapesthat resemble a single
hoof print, but rodentswould struggle to
cross large distances or climb wallsor roofs as described in many reports.
(05:34):
Badgers or other mammals.
Another idea is thatlocal quadrupeds, such
as badgers, left prints in shallow snowthat were distorted by wind or melting.
The problem is thatbadgers rarely behave in
a single file or leap overobstacles, such as rooftops or rivers.
None fit all the observations.
(05:54):
Balloon or rope theory.
One imaginative theoryis that the prints were
made by shackles orchains trailing from a
drifting hot air balloonor an experimental
balloon launched fromthe Devonport dockyard.
The idea is that a balloon's mooring ropesor shackles might have scraped the snow as
the balloon drifted, creatingintermittent prints over a path.
(06:15):
Proponents argue this could explain printson roofs, across rivers, or over fields, as
the balloon might havesoared over obstacles.
However, sceptics pointout that balloon tracks
would likely snag ontrees, brush, or structures.
Also, maintaining astable drift over dozens
of miles in a zigzagpath would be difficult.
(06:36):
Moreover, one would expect disturbances,tangling, or failure of the device.
Still it remains a creative idea that hasdrawn interest in folk speculation circles.
Supernatural or cryptid explanations.
Given the era and thenature of the phenomenon,
many attributed thetracks to the supernatural,
(06:57):
demons, satanic visitation, orunknown creatures cloaked in myth.
In Victorian Devon,religious interpretations
were common, that thedevil was walking through
the region inspecting sinnersor performing some ritual walk.
Modern fringe theorieshave included UFOs,
paranormal entities, ortime-shifting creatures.
(07:20):
None has credible evidence.
The supernaturalremains within the realm
of folklore and narrative, rather thanbeing considered a scientific possibility.
Some researchers conclude that no singleexplanation accounts for all the evidence.
Instead, they proposea mixture of causes,
some genuine prints,perhaps from local animals
or rodents under coldweather distortion, plus
(07:42):
hoaxes in populatedareas, plus exaggeration
and retrospective embellishmentin newspaper reports.
In other words, the devil'sfootprints may be partly
myth, partly natural anomaly,and partly human mischief.
Over time, the storyof the devil's footprints
has passed into folklore, but scholarshave periodically revisited the case.
(08:04):
In 1994, folklorist andhistorian Mike Dash
collected a trove of sourcematerial, newspapers,
letters, and vicar records, andpublished the devil's hoofmarks.
Source material on theGreat Devon Mystery of 1855.
He concluded that the tracks' odd behaviourlikely stemmed from multiple sources, with
some hoaxing involvedand some natural prints
(08:26):
misinterpreted,noting that none of the
single theories heldup to all reported facts.
Modern sceptics also questionthe reliability of the original accounts.
Many of the letters andreports were published
days later, filtered through newspapereditors, and included hearsay.
Eyewitness memory,especially in challenging
circumstances such as snow,darkness, and panic is unreliable.
(08:50):
Snow conditions, thawing,wind, refreezing, may distort prints,
amplify perception of straightpaths, and erase subtle signs.
It's plausible that someprints were exaggerated,
conflated, or misreportedin multiple villages.
Moreover, some laterreports describe footprints
ceasing before certainhomes or restarting
(09:10):
beyond them, oddities that suggestvariation in reportage or exaggeration.
The absence of anysingle preserved original
tracing or photographfurther complicates verification.
In short, the mysteryresists resolution because
our evidence is second-hand, inconsistent,and filtered through sensational press.
(09:31):
The devil's footprintsendure in public
imagination because theyevoke primal questions.
A path across the snow withno discernible walker invites awe.
The prints crossobstacles as though gravity,
fences, doors, androoftops were insignificant.
They combine nature, legend, fear, andnarrative into a perfect Victorian enigma.
(09:54):
They also appeal toour desire for narrative.
People want a story.
The devil walking across thecountryside is a potent image.
A daring prankster, aforgotten creature, or
a freak natural eventprovides tension and wonder.
The marks also tapinto themes of faith, the
unknown, and the humanneed to explain anomalies.
(10:16):
In 1855, religious sentimentwas strong in Devon.
The devil's footprints wereviewed as more than odd prints.
They were omens,portents, or divine warnings.
In the modern era, themystery is less about
faith and more aboutthe interplay of folklore,
natural phenomena, humanperception, and media.
It reminds us of howeasily wonder can escape
(10:38):
explanation and how storiesfill gaps left by lost data.
Over 160 years later,the snow has melted, the
villages have changed, andthe eyewitnesses are gone.
The devil's footprintsremain in letters,
periodicals, folk tales,and scholarly footnotes.
They are footprints of a mythcrawling through memory.
(10:59):
They remind us thatsometimes the most compelling
mysteries are thosewe can only glimpse in
frozen outlines, in silencebroken by speculation.
We may never knowwhat crossed Devon that
night or how it boundedover walls and roofs.
However, the tracksleft their mark on folklore,
curiosity, and the boundarywhere nature meets imagination.
(11:25):
I hope you enjoyed thatepisode of the Compact
Mysteries podcast fromCompactMysteries.com.
If you did, why not leaveus a review wherever
you get your podcasts,and while you're there,
don't forget to subscribe so youdon't miss any future episodes.
If you would like to support us moredirectly, please consider buying us a coffee.
Head on over toCompactHistories.com/MysteriesCoffee to see how.
(11:49):
Also, please check out ourother Compact Podcasts.
You will find them all atCompactHistories.com.
Thanks for listeningand I'll see you next time.
Welcome to the CompactMysteries podcast from
(00:06):
CompactMysteries.com,the show where we try
to unravel a differentbite-sized mystery each
week, from bafflingdisappearances and strange
objects to unexplainedevents and mysterious places.
This is episode 46, TheMystery of the Devil's Footprints.
(00:30):
In the dead of night onthe 8th February 1855,
the quiet countryside of Devon,England was blanketed in fresh snow.
To the locals, it wasan ordinary midwinter
scene, until dawn brokeand they found something
extraordinary, a trailof hoof-shaped prints
stretching for miles across fields,rooftops, walls and even frozen rivers.
(00:50):
These were calledthe Devil's Footprints or
sometimes the Devil'sHoofmarks, an inexplicable
trace in the snow thathas baffled scientists,
folklorists and mysterylovers ever since.
The prints appeared suddenlyafter a heavy snowfall and by
morning they had stirred a mixof fear, fascination and uproar.
They were unlike anythingknown to local fauna
(01:12):
and traversed every kind ofobstacle with apparent impunity.
In some places the marksseemed to cross walls
or shingles, pass over drainpipes and runacross rooftops in single file, as though
the strange entity, or force, that madethem simply ignored gravity and geometry.
Estimates of how far theprints stretched vary widely.
(01:35):
Some say they covered40 miles, while others
suggest they may haveranged up to 100 miles
across the snow-covered landscape of eastand south Devon and possibly into Dorset.
Dozens of reports emergedfrom towns like Exmouth,
Topsham, Dawlish andTainmouth, describing
clovenhoof impressionsabout four inches long
and three inches wide, spacedbetween eight and sixteen inches apart.
(01:58):
Many villagers refusedto leave their homes
after dark, convinced the Devil himselfmight be roaming the countryside.
To this day the mystery endures.
What left those imprints?
And how could it havewalked over walls, rooftops,
rivers and fenceswithout breaking stride?
What makes the Devil'sfootprints especially
perplexing is not justtheir length but their path.
(02:21):
Unlike a creature walking a winding course,these prints often followed straight lines,
leaping over obstacles ratherthan navigating around them.
Farmers reported that stacks of hayor fences did not interrupt the tracks.
In some cases theprints stopped on one side
of an object and thenrestarted on the other,
with no visible disturbanceto the object itself.
(02:41):
In others footprints appeared onroofs and over the tops of walls.
There are even claimsthat some prints passed
through drainpipesas small as four inches
in diameter, though thoseaccounts are contested.
In various locationsthe marks were found
directly on either sideof doorways or cafes
or churchyards without any visibledisturbance to the intervening space.
(03:03):
The prints were almostalways in single file,
suggesting a humanoid orbipedal gait rather than a quadruped.
It was, to Victoriansensibilities, a demon
walking among them,and many baptised it so.
Over the decades a varietyof explanations have been
proposed, ranging fromplausible to far-fetched.
(03:25):
None has gained universal acceptance,but each adds colour to the mystery.
Hoax or human trickery.
One of the earliest andsimplest theories is that the prints
were made deliberately bypranksters or groups of people.
Some suggest stilts or improvised devicesmight have produced hoof-like marks.
(03:45):
Others propose that multiplecharacters coordinated
to create the trail acrossvillage after village.
Some have argued that the prints' neatnessand consistency suggest human design.
However, the scale and complexity ofthe prints complicate that explanation.
To create tracks over40 to 100 miles overnight,
skipping fences, crossingrivers and mounting
(04:06):
roofs while preservingcontinuity would
require an organisedeffort, speed and secrecy.
Many of the reported areaswere remote and dispersed.
The logistics alone make hoaxingthe entire phenomenon improbable.
Animal tracks and rodents.
Several animal-basedtheories have been advanced.
Among them, kangaroos,perhaps the most sensational.
(04:30):
Soon after news of the phenomenon spread,the Reverend G.M. Musgrave suggested a pair
of kangaroos might have escapedfrom a private menagerie in Sidmouth.
Kangaroos hop in ways thatcan leave prints reminiscent
of hooves and mightbound over small obstacles.
But kangaroos do notnaturally roam Devon and
they could hardly scalerooftops, cross-fencing
(04:50):
flawlessly or sustain printsover extensive snow terrain.
Musgrave later admitted that the kangarooidea was part humour, part distraction.
Rodents or mice.
Some researchers, suchas Mike Dash, proposed
that hopping rodentslike wood mice could
leave double-print marksthat resemble cloven hooves.
(05:11):
The idea is that whenthey hop, their hind feet
land close together, creatingpaired impressions on the ground.
Under certain snow conditions, particularlywhere thawing or refreezing occurs, these
may coalesce into shapesthat resemble a single
hoof print, but rodentswould struggle to
cross large distances or climb wallsor roofs as described in many reports.
(05:34):
Badgers or other mammals.
Another idea is thatlocal quadrupeds, such
as badgers, left prints in shallow snowthat were distorted by wind or melting.
The problem is thatbadgers rarely behave in
a single file or leap overobstacles, such as rooftops or rivers.
None fit all the observations.
(05:54):
Balloon or rope theory.
One imaginative theoryis that the prints were
made by shackles orchains trailing from a
drifting hot air balloonor an experimental
balloon launched fromthe Devonport dockyard.
The idea is that a balloon's mooring ropesor shackles might have scraped the snow as
the balloon drifted, creatingintermittent prints over a path.
(06:15):
Proponents argue this could explain printson roofs, across rivers, or over fields, as
the balloon might havesoared over obstacles.
However, sceptics pointout that balloon tracks
would likely snag ontrees, brush, or structures.
Also, maintaining astable drift over dozens
of miles in a zigzagpath would be difficult.
(06:36):
Moreover, one would expect disturbances,tangling, or failure of the device.
Still it remains a creative idea that hasdrawn interest in folk speculation circles.
Supernatural or cryptid explanations.
Given the era and thenature of the phenomenon,
many attributed thetracks to the supernatural,
(06:57):
demons, satanic visitation, orunknown creatures cloaked in myth.
In Victorian Devon,religious interpretations
were common, that thedevil was walking through
the region inspecting sinnersor performing some ritual walk.
Modern fringe theorieshave included UFOs,
paranormal entities, ortime-shifting creatures.
(07:20):
None has credible evidence.
The supernaturalremains within the realm
of folklore and narrative, rather thanbeing considered a scientific possibility.
Some researchers conclude that no singleexplanation accounts for all the evidence.
Instead, they proposea mixture of causes,
some genuine prints,perhaps from local animals
or rodents under coldweather distortion, plus
(07:42):
hoaxes in populatedareas, plus exaggeration
and retrospective embellishmentin newspaper reports.
In other words, the devil'sfootprints may be partly
myth, partly natural anomaly,and partly human mischief.
Over time, the storyof the devil's footprints
has passed into folklore, but scholarshave periodically revisited the case.
(08:04):
In 1994, folklorist andhistorian Mike Dash
collected a trove of sourcematerial, newspapers,
letters, and vicar records, andpublished the devil's hoofmarks.
Source material on theGreat Devon Mystery of 1855.
He concluded that the tracks' odd behaviourlikely stemmed from multiple sources, with
some hoaxing involvedand some natural prints
(08:26):
misinterpreted,noting that none of the
single theories heldup to all reported facts.
Modern sceptics also questionthe reliability of the original accounts.
Many of the letters andreports were published
days later, filtered through newspapereditors, and included hearsay.
Eyewitness memory,especially in challenging
circumstances such as snow,darkness, and panic is unreliable.
(08:50):
Snow conditions, thawing,wind, refreezing, may distort prints,
amplify perception of straightpaths, and erase subtle signs.
It's plausible that someprints were exaggerated,
conflated, or misreportedin multiple villages.
Moreover, some laterreports describe footprints
ceasing before certainhomes or restarting
(09:10):
beyond them, oddities that suggestvariation in reportage or exaggeration.
The absence of anysingle preserved original
tracing or photographfurther complicates verification.
In short, the mysteryresists resolution because
our evidence is second-hand, inconsistent,and filtered through sensational press.
(09:31):
The devil's footprintsendure in public
imagination because theyevoke primal questions.
A path across the snow withno discernible walker invites awe.
The prints crossobstacles as though gravity,
fences, doors, androoftops were insignificant.
They combine nature, legend, fear, andnarrative into a perfect Victorian enigma.
(09:54):
They also appeal toour desire for narrative.
People want a story.
The devil walking across thecountryside is a potent image.
A daring prankster, aforgotten creature, or
a freak natural eventprovides tension and wonder.
The marks also tapinto themes of faith, the
unknown, and the humanneed to explain anomalies.
(10:16):
In 1855, religious sentimentwas strong in Devon.
The devil's footprints wereviewed as more than odd prints.
They were omens,portents, or divine warnings.
In the modern era, themystery is less about
faith and more aboutthe interplay of folklore,
natural phenomena, humanperception, and media.
It reminds us of howeasily wonder can escape
(10:38):
explanation and how storiesfill gaps left by lost data.
Over 160 years later,the snow has melted, the
villages have changed, andthe eyewitnesses are gone.
The devil's footprintsremain in letters,
periodicals, folk tales,and scholarly footnotes.
They are footprints of a mythcrawling through memory.
(10:59):
They remind us thatsometimes the most compelling
mysteries are thosewe can only glimpse in
frozen outlines, in silencebroken by speculation.
We may never knowwhat crossed Devon that
night or how it boundedover walls and roofs.
However, the tracksleft their mark on folklore,
curiosity, and the boundarywhere nature meets imagination.
(11:25):
I hope you enjoyed thatepisode of the Compact
Mysteries podcast fromCompactMysteries.com.
If you did, why not leaveus a review wherever
you get your podcasts,and while you're there,
don't forget to subscribe so youdon't miss any future episodes.
If you would like to support us moredirectly, please consider buying us a coffee.
Head on over toCompactHistories.com/MysteriesCoffee to see how.
(11:49):
Also, please check out ourother Compact Podcasts.
You will find them all atCompactHistories.com.
Thanks for listeningand I'll see you next time.
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