Devil’s Den, Clatford Bottom, Wilts

Details: This circle apparently appeared on the 20th of June although information about it did not appear publicly anywhere until the day after on the 21st. The circle was in a field of barley and measured approximately 200ft in diameter. It was reported that the farmer did not want anyone to access the circle and by the end of the day on the 21st the farmer had cut out a good proportion of the detail from inside the formation.

Landscape: The circle lies very close to the Devil’s Den Dolman in Clatford Bottom. There have been many circles around this monument over the years, the last in 2015 – see here. You can see a picture of Devil’s Den in the image gallery below. The stones are what is left of a megalithic long barrow reportedly once 230ft in length. The stones you see today were reconstructed in the 1920s after the stones had been moved for agriculture. This is a very pretty place and well worth a visit in it’s own right. Apart from a few walkers, this is a quiet, ancient and peaceful place.

Flight: We did decide to fly over this circle to see what was left and if it would be possible to reconstruct photographically, but unfortunately the damage was just too great and when we arrived we could see that what was left of the circle had been further vandalised. However, on the way we did have the opportunity to have a good look around and photograph some of the beautiful countryside. See below for images of Tan Hill, Rybury Camp and a pretty field of poppies on Milk Hill as we flew over. Karen has also drawn the formation and you can see her images below.

Design & Symbolism: This formation was another formation to feature seven-fold geometry this season. A ‘fat’ seven-pointed star (hepatgram) – as opposed to the ‘thin’ one at Ackling Dyke earlier in the month – also contained a seven-petalled flower known as the Flower of Spirit. This was a wonderful formation to draw. Seven can be tricky, dividing the 360 degrees of the circle by seven does not give a whole number. Instead, we have the irrational number of 51.42… which means getting this to look perfect is very difficult.

As we have discussed before seven is a very special number it is “the number of spirit, revelation, the divine feminine and what lies beyond the veil”. Seven is known as the virginal number as it does not mix at all well with other numbers, hence it’s connection with the Divine, virginal feminine. It is also the number associated with the notes in the musical sale and colours in the light spectrum – hence its traditional connection to the ephemeral and spiritual realms. To see so many sevens in 2018 is a great treat. This formation is a double seven, double the power, double the spirit. It was a beautiful and special crop circle and it is a great shame it’s gone.

Visiting the Circles? If you are thinking of visiting any crop circles this summer, please read our Visiting the Crop Circles section. It’s full of useful information and etiquette for visiting the countryside and the crop circles. Please remember that you should not enter any fields without the express permission of the farmer.

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Please Help to keep us Flying in 2018: If you have enjoyed looking at our pictures and information please consider making a small donation to keep us flying. There are so few of us left regularly recording the circles it’s really important that we continue. And while some now use drones to record the circles, it is important that there are still images taken from aircraft where the best quality camera equipment can be used and images that include the broad vista of the landscape can be taken. This kind of photography is expensive and it gets harder with each passing year to raise the funds we need to continue our work, but if everyone who regularly looked at this website made a small donation we would meet the funds we need. You can make a donation here.

NOTE: Some of the images below are beautiful landscape scenes. Click on each image to enlarge them and see the whole picture.

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