The Devil’s Footprints: The Unsolved Mystery That Left England Wondering What Walked Among Them
Spooky season things are always on my mind no matter what time of year it is, (if you’ve been around you know I like mysteries) so I felt like diving into another.
I’m going to set the scene for you first, and tell you to imagine waking up one winter morning to find strange hoofprints trailing across your backyard. You follow them, and they go up the wall, across the roof, down the other side, across a frozen river, over hedges, and across miles of snowy countryside, like something impossible had walked straight through everything in its path.
That’s exactly what happened in February 1855, when an eerie trail of footprints appeared overnight in Devon, England. Locals called them “The Devil’s Footprints,” and over 150 years later, we’re still no closer to explaining what (or who) made them.
Was it an animal, a prank, something supernatural? The theories have been hoof-ing around ever since.
The Morning Everything Got Weird
It started on the night of February 8th, in 1855. A heavy snowstorm blanketed Devon, covering everything in fresh white powder. Nothing unusual by all means, but by sunrise, things looked…a little different than normal.
Locals woke up to find a single line of hoof-like prints stamped across the snow. The prints were cloven-hoof shaped (like a goat or small pony), about 4 inches long and 3 inches wide, spaced 8-16 inches apart, and running in a perfectly straight line with no weaving or circling!
At first, that might sound like a sad and lost wandering animal, but then they noticed something stranger. The footprints didn’t stop at obstacles. They went straight up walls, across roofs, over haystacks, across frozen rivers, and some even led right up to houses…then onto the rooftops…and down the other side.
It was as if whatever left them could walk vertically, horizontally, across water, like literally nothing stopped it.
And these tracks weren’t just in one village. Reports came from over 30 different locations, covering somewhere between 40 and 100 miles.
Imagine an invisible creature walking straight through town after town, ignoring fences, rivers, and even buildings as it meandered on through the snow storm. That’s what it looked like anyway.
Why They Called It “The Devil’s Footprints”
It didn’t take long for rumors to spread. People said the tracks looked like cloven hooves, the mark of the Devil himself.
This was Victorian England, so don’t forget that superstition ran deep. Wild stories flew through the countryside as some said Satan was walking the Earth, while others believed a demonic creature was out searching for sinners. A few even claimed to have seen a strange figure that night.
Church attendance reportedly spiked in the weeks after the footprints appeared, so you know the fear was real.
But even those less inclined toward hellfire-and-brimstone couldn’t explain it away. No animal known in the area could leave tracks like that, or cover that kind of distance, over those kinds of obstacles, in one night.
Theories (and Why They Don’t Quite Work)
Over the years, people have tried to explain The Devil’s Footprints every way imaginable. Here are some of the leading ideas…and the problems with each.
1. A hopping animal (like a hare or kangaroo)
Some thought a rabbit or hare could have hopped in the snow, leaving weird tracks. Others floated the idea of an escaped kangaroo (there was reportedly one in a private menagerie nearby).
Problem: Hopping animals leave paired tracks, these prints were single file, perfectly spaced, in a straight line, not a classic hopping pattern.
Also… kangaroo tracks going up walls and across rooftops through a snow storm? Unlikely.
2. A prank
Could it have been a human hoax? Someone using a carved hoof on a stick, leaving tracks overnight?
Problem: to fake tracks over 40+ miles, through dozens of villages, up and over walls, rivers, and roofs…in one night…in a snowstorm…would take a level of dedication that feels almost superhuman.
Even with a team of pranksters, the logistics are kinda wild.
3. Weather phenomenon
Some scientists suggested hailstones, melting patterns, or drifting snow created weird shapes when the wind got involed.
Problem with that one: These weren’t random patches. They were a continuous, uniform trail of distinct prints, often in a straight line. If it were melting snow, the pattern would’ve been messier, more irregular.
4. A hopping mouse or other small animal
Some said a wood mouse or similar creature hopping in the snow could make hoof-like shapes.
Problem: A mouse crossing 40 miles overnight? Leaving continuous tracks up walls and over roofs? Also, the prints were 4 inches long, a mouse print is nowhere near that size.
So…What Walked Across Devon?
That’s the thing, we still don’t really know. Every explanation feels like it solves one piece of the puzzle while breaking another.
Animal tracks? Doesn’t explain the walls and roofs.
A hoax? Doesn’t explain the scale or effort needed.
Weather? Doesn’t explain the consistency and detail.
Whatever made the tracks behaved like it had no respect for physics, obstacles, or human boundaries. And that’s exactly why it keeps freaking people out.
The Footprints Keep Appearing
Here’s the really eerie part: similar footprints have reportedly shown up since 1855.
In 1957, in Everberg, Belgium, mysterious cloven-hoof prints were reported in fresh snow.
In 2009, strange hoofprints appeared in North Devon, eerily similar to the original event.
None have been as widespread as the 1855 incident…but enough to keep the legend alive.
Why We Love Mysteries Like This
I think part of why The Devil’s Footprints still captivates us is because it sits in that perfect sweet spot of spooky and unexplained.
We want there to be a logical answer, but a tiny part of us loves that there might not be.
It’s like the best kind of campfire story, except it actually happened, and nobody’s solved it in over 150 years.
Modern scientists still lean toward a natural (if unusual) explanation. Some think a combination of factors (wind patterns, animal tracks, snow melt) created an illusion of hoofprints.
Maybe it wasn’t the Devil, but a weird mix of snow, nature, and human perception.
But deep down I kind of hope we never find out. There’s something more magical about an unsolved mystery, especially one that made people in top hats peer nervously out their windows at night, wondering if something had crossed their roof while they slept.
The Devil’s Footprints might never get an answer, and honestly, that’s okay.
Sometimes the best mysteries are the ones that stay just out of reach. They remind us that even in a world of science, tech, and constant answers, there’s still room for wonder.
And whether it was an animal, a prank, or something stranger, one thing’s for sure: for one snowy night in 1855, something walked across Devon, and left people looking nervously over their shoulders ever since.
