Devil's Humps, Stoughton

The Devil's Humps are four Bronze Age barrows situated on Bow Hill on the South Downs near Stoughton, West Sussex. They are situated on a downland ridgeway crossed by an ancient trackway, above Kingley Vale. The Devil's Humps are counted among the most impressive round barrows surviving on the South Downs. The Devil's Humps are within the Kingley Vale National Nature Reserve. The two bell barrows together with two pond barrows and a cross dyke are listed as Scheduled Ancient Monument 1008371, while the two bowl barrows are listed as Scheduled Ancient Monument 1008372.The barrowsThe four mounds form a small cemetery group running in a line southwest to northeast. The two southwestern mounds are located close together; they are bell barrows with a banked depression separating them. The two northeastern mounds are bowl barrows.The four barrows forming the Devil's Humps are all aligned and stand 3to high in spite of damage caused by early explorations. No records survive from these early excavations, so the precise date for the construction of the barrows is unknown. However, they are believed to date from the Late Neolithic or the Early Bronze Age. It is possible that they were reused in the Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods.