Standing Stone, Farway, Devon

It doesn't look like much, but this stone was placed during the bronze age and is associated with the nearby bronze age earthworks, moat and prehistoric necropolis at Farway. Farway Hill is part of a ridge forming an important routeway linking Sidford, Sidmouth, Ottery St Mary and Honiton, and has been latterly used as a waymarker near to the straight tracks and ancient crossroads of the four boundaries.

Originally thought to be an erratic - a stone moved by glacial ice flows - it is now known to be commensurate with local geology.  

Known locally as the 'Witches Stone' or 'Slaughter Stone', legend states that it rolls itself down to the River Sid to wash itself of the blood after being used as a sacrificial stone by witches. There are lots of similar stories about stones situated all over Britain; some dance in the moonlight during certain calendar times, others go to nearby rivers at midnight and other variations on that theme.

Having been moved due to a road-widening scheme, it now sits in the grounds of the Hare & Hounds pub at Putts Corner on an ancient crossway. Sadly, it looks to be just a part of a rock garden now, although quite a bit larger than the stones normally seen. Having visited with friends on the way home from a morning out, we stopped at the pub for lunch and I asked the landlady if she knew where the stone was, which she was able to point out, of course...much to my surprise! ;)

Many of these stones have been connected with Leys (latterly known as Ley Lines), which were discovered by Alfred Watkins. He surmised that leys were old straight tracks with stones and other points of interest as markers, which is a more prosaic original meaning than the later ideas concerning earth energy lines.

Personally, as someone who has taken courses in archaeology I tend to lean more to the former meaning. However, I'm also a pagan interested in Earth Mysteries, and although I don't blindly believe anything without good reasoning I think there may be a case for energy lines too. Two books which I'd highly recommend concerning both theories, is The Old Straight Track by Alfred Watkins and Needles of Stone by Tom Graves. 

And there was have it! A little - and somewhat underwhelming - standing stone but with lots of interesting history and stories attached to it. :)