Where Darkness Gathers: The Devil's Chair

The Devil’s Chair is the highest of the rocky outcrops that make up the ridge of the Stiperstones. Its unique shape (I bet you can guess what it is!) has long led the people living nearby to develop a mythos for their unusual rocky neighbour.

According to some legends, the chair was formed by the Devil himself when, for reasons known only to himself, he was travelling across Britain with an apron full of rocks. Instead of filling in the valley on the other side of the Stiperstones – known as Hell’s Gutter – as planned, he decided to use some of the rocks he’d been carrying for this task to build himself a chair. Industrious!

Unfortunately for him, he was clearly better at sculpting than sewing: when he rose from his break, his apron strings snapped, and the rest of the rocks he’d been saving went tumbling down instead.

These, naturally, formed the rest of the immediate landscape.

Today, it is said that on the longest night of the year, the Devil returns to his Chair and summons all local followers – witches, ne’er-do-wells, imps, etc – to join him for a reverie. After some wild and irreverent dancing, they all get down to the business of choosing their ruler on earth for the next year. Sort of an AGM of evil.