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Discover: Landscapes

Devil’s Hole

Descend down the winding path to discover the Devil’s Hole; an impressive and strangely eerie blowhole that has been eroded into Jersey’s coastline over the millennia.

The Devil’s Hole is a natural crater in the solid cliff measuring about 100ft across and plunging 200ft down. It has been caused by the sea gradually eroding the roof of what was once a cave, until it collapsed and formed a crater.

The name ‘Devil’s Hole’ is a dramatic one but was only invented in the 19th century. Formerly it was called ‘Le Creux de Vis’ or Spiral Cave. One possible derivation for its modern name is connected with the shipwreck of a French boat in 1851. Its figurehead was thrust by the tide straight into the hole and a local sculptor transformed the torso into a wooden devil, complete with horns. Today this devil’s metal replica stands in a pool on the way down to the crater, lending a peculiarly supernatural atmosphere to the winding path down to the Devil’s Hole itself.

Generously donated to the National Trust for Jersey in 2006 by the Clarke family in memory of Fred Clarke.

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St Mary, JE3 3BD

Parking

Available at the Priory Inn Pub, St Mary. The start of footpath to Devil’s Hole is off the pub car park.

There are two viewing platforms at the bottom of the path offering superb cliffline vistas.

MUST SEE Peer down into the Devil’s Hole itself from our viewing platform and watch as the waves crash in through the tunnel entrance onto the rocks below. The first statue of the devil was sculpted in 1851 by J.P. Giffard using the wooden figurehead of La Joséphine, a cutter wrecked outside the hole the same year.