Agglestone Rock, also known as the Devil's Anvil, is a

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

block of about 400 tonnes weight, perched on a conical hill, approximately from the village of

Studland Studland is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England. The village is located about north of the town of Swanage, over a steep chalk ridge, and south of the South East Dorset conurbation at Sandbanks, from which it ...

, south

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

. Formerly an 'anvil' shape with a flat top, it fell onto one end and side in 1970, leaving the top at an angle of approximately 45°. Legend has it that the devil threw the rock from

The Needles The Needles are a row of three stacks of chalk that rise about out of the sea off the western extremity of the Isle of Wight in the English Channel, United Kingdom, close to Alum Bay and Scratchell's Bay, and part of Totland, the weste ...

on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

with the intention of hitting either

Corfe Castle Corfe Castle is a fortification standing above the Corfe Castle (village), village of the same name on the Isle of Purbeck peninsula in the English county of Dorset. Built by William the Conqueror, the castle dates to the 11th century and ...

Bindon Abbey Bindon Abbey (''Bindonium'') was a Cistercian monastery, of which only ruins remain, on the River Frome about half a mile east of Wool in Dorset, England. History The monastery was founded in 1149 by William de Glastonia on the site since kn ...

Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Church of England, Anglican cathedral in the city of Salisbury, England. The cathedral is regarded as one of the leading examples of Early English architecture, ...

. "Aggle" was taken into the old Dorset dialect as meaning "to wobble".

Geology

The rock is an "eroded relic of iron-cemented,

Tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...

sandstone, the Agglestone Grit". It used to be

anvil An anvil is a metalworking tool consisting of a large block of metal (usually Forging, forged or Steel casting, cast steel), with a flattened top surface, upon which another object is struck (or "worked"). Anvils are massive because the hi ...

-shaped, but has since changed form due to

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

and been toppled. Visiting the rock was listed by the

Dorset Echo The ''Dorset Echo'' is a daily newspaper published in the county of Dorset, England. The title publishes Monday to Saturday from editorial offices in Weymouth, and covers issues concerning south, central and west Dorset. The ''Dorset Echo'' ...

as one of the "25 Things To Do In Dorset Before You Die".Dorset Echo - News, Sport, Homes, Jobs, Cars and Local Information in Weymouth, Portland, Dorchester

Mythology

In his 1927 book ''Downland Man'',

H.J. Massingham Harold John Massingham (25 March 1888 – 22 August 1952) was a prolific British writer on ruralism, matters to do with the countryside and agriculture. He was also a published poet. Life Massingham was the son of the journalist H. W. Massing ...

wrote:

References

Landforms of Dorset Rock formations of England {{UK-geology-stub