Accounts
Things people have said about Chanctonbury Ring on the internet, collected from wherever I found them saying it. If you've been up there and something (or nothing) happened, send it in please.
Everything on this page is quoted from somewhere public, and carries the source and the date so you can go and check it. I've sorted it by what people describe rather than by where I found it, because that's the only way the patterns show up.
I have left in the accounts where nothing happened, of which there are many.
Disorientation
People somehow getting themselves lost or turned around inside the Ring. It's a small copse on an open hilltop and you can walk across it in about a minute.
This one isn't in Simpson, or Newton, or Gosse, or Macfarlane. I can't find it written down anywhere.
I've lived very close to Chanctonbury for 20 years and walk up there regularly, usually following the same path straight through - on one occasion, exactly the same thing happened to me, walking straight into the ring and out of what should have been the other side, I found myself emerging roughly 20 feet away from where I had entered with a real sense of unease, disorientation and panic.
This was in daylight, and I've been many times since and not experienced it again.
For a very small wood on top of a hill, the place has a very strange energy to it!
Stef Michalski · Facebook, Ridgeway and Ancient Tracks group, 2024
Went into the Ring and turned left. Crossed through the wood and popped my head out the other side. Then continued round to the right (on the inside of the wood) and came out where I thought was near the same way we went in. Not to be - I had come out completely the opposite side, which looked identical to where we went in. It wasn't until we were about a mile further away on the South Downs Way that we realised what had happened. And yes, we had to turn back on ourselves! Very weird - the path had the same puddles, same gate and cattle grid and all looked so familiar.
Caryl Lynzy · Facebook, Ridgeway and Ancient Tracks group, 2024
Oh yes! I have. Still freaky to think of it. Walked up and sat having lunch on the edge. Suddenly just got cold and felt a whoosh over me and a strong sense of being watched. Packed up super quick - sarnie in hand, and headed round to the right to by pass it but got disoriented and doubled back on myself and ran back down the way I came.
Carol-Anne Wilson · Facebook, Ridgeway and Ancient Tracks group, 2024
I ventured into the interior and it is a bit of a creepy wood with evidence of lots of campfires. It is so overgrown I couldn't see any evidence of the temple...I did manage to get a bit lost in there and had a brief 'Blair Witch' moment when I was convinced I wasn't going to find my way out!
danielspaniel · The Modern Antiquarian, fieldnotes, 6 July 2005
Could be some kind of electromagnetic field on top of the hill, which also might explain the absence of birds (it interferes with their sense of direction). I sometimes wonder if this is one of the reasons for people becoming disorientated (or Pixie led)
Not being able to go in
Four people who stopped at or near the treeline. Three of them say they knew nothing about the place beforehand, and one of them says she stayed deliberately unread because she wanted to see what it was like. Something like this happened to me. I wouldn't say I "wasn't able" to go in necessarily - but I did feel quite strongly that I didn't want to. In my defence, it was pitch black and 1am in the morning.
When I saw the Ring in the distance, as I approached from the south east, I felt immediately that it had a power that the other parts of the downs had not. The route takes you within a few metres of the Ring, and whilst I felt comfortable to walk past - with the wind blowing the beeches and the roaring noise - I felt very strongly that I did not have permission to set foot within the Ring. I was not frightened of it, but I clearly felt that I should not venture past the outer ring of trees.
Rachel Mitchell · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
A commenter replied "The power of suggestion." She answered: "My point was that I had not researched this area at all prior to passing. I have been to plenty of 'haunted' buildings and felt nothing."
Same thread
I had never heard of the place before visiting so knew nothing. I felt so nervous walking up the hill & once there I couldn't go into the ring, it felt too ominous & made me feel sick. I have walked all over the south downs and never had this experiance. On coming home I googled it. It is a very strange place, thats for sure.
Donna Theresa · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
This thread has totally unlocked a random memory that I never linked to the paranormal. I went up there with a friend for a walk years ago when I was a teenager. Suddenly, as I neared the top, I became really dizzy and had this intense feeling of vertigo. I remember feeling it was really weird because it wasn't something that I usually experienced and it wasn't shockingly steep. I remember being so overwhelmed by it I couldn't go any further and felt urgently that had to leave. I felt fine by the time I got back down to the bottom. I hadn't really thought about it again until reading this. It's never happened to me since. How bizarre.
Kate Evans · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
I went there just once, it was around the time of The Great Storm. I had a feeling of foreboding and fear entering the ring that surprised me. I read up on the history of the site only after my visit.
Graham Robertson · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
And then this, on a different video, on a different platform, about a year later.
I was told by many locals Chanctonbury has lay lines we were all told as children not to enter the trees oh I have been watching this at my brothers we had the shivers
@chriscaspian2280 · YouTube comment, Haunts and Jaunts Adventures, 2025
It stops when you leave
Whatever it is, four people report it switching off after they left.
The sensation went as soon as I had passed by, and I walked alone for several hours more without incident. However the sense of power of the place has stayed with me ever since.
Rachel Mitchell · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
I felt fine by the time I got back down to the bottom.
Kate Evans · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
As we got nearer I felt frightened and wanted to go back. My husband said 'we've walked this far, we're not going back now'. Anyway we walked on and suddenly a huge cloud of flying ants descended, and everyone started running down the hillside trying to wave them away. I've never seen so many, like a black cloud it was. I never did reach the top or go back.
My story may not seem spooky, but it was a very oppressive tense energy on the walk, maybe I sensed the big cloud of insects coming, but whatever it was wasn't pleasant. It left me as soon as I reached the bottom of the hill.
Denise O'Neil · Facebook, Ridgeway and Ancient Tracks group, 2024
The fourth one is a presenter, on camera, walking back down to the car park. He puts it down to the wind. He says so twice.
Honestly, I've got such a horrendous headache now from that wind. That was crazy.
I got such a bad headache up there from the wind. It was really intense. I'm glad now we've come back down.
Ady, Haunts and Jaunts Adventures · YouTube, Haunts and Jaunts Adventures, November 2025 (narration, 09:27 and 10:08)
Nothing at all
Chanctonbury Ring is a popular destination for hikers and cyclists, and I think we can safely assume that, most of the time, visitors to the area don't experience anything out of the ordinary at all.
None of these were volunteered in answer to a question like the one at the bottom of this page. They all turned up in threads that were asking for the opposite.
I'm actually quite sensitive to atmospheres, but didn't feel any kind of brooding presence.
Lucy Melford · Personal blog, April 2020
I live in the area and often walk to Chanctonbury Ring and right through it. I've never felt anything out of the ordinary there and I have been entirely alone there on a windy day. Having said that I'm sure I'd want to spend the night alone up there.
Peter K Harris · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
I walk there quite often and have never felt the least bit uncomfortable. Didn't even realise it had any ghostly stories associated with it. Although I probably wouldn't want to go there after dark.
@peterharris2482 · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
Those last two are near-identical accounts from what may or may not be the same person, on two different platforms, a year apart. I can't tell. I've left them both in rather than pick one, and the first one appears to be missing a "not" in its last sentence, which I haven't corrected.
Cobblers. Spent many a night camping on it throughout the year in the 80s and 90s and nearby Cissbury ring too... You're feeling cold because its always windy there and you are in the shade...
@mambastu · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
Ive camped and walked through the woods at night several times, cant say ive ever noticed or experienced anything odd there... Once i heard footseps in the woods, just turned out to be a horse
@darleschickens3726 · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
I think it's a nighttime thing up there by all accounts - I've been in the day and not felt anything... this was a long time ago when I didn't know about the spooky legends associated with it. I'm overdue a visit tho but I'd be going in primed I guess...
Lisa Russell · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
I've heard stories, but have only visited in daylight and haven't experienced anything odd. But it's a strange place.
Sean Wallis · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
with grandparents in Worthing, as children we spent a lot of summers on the downs and I don't remember anything disturbing on either Chanctonbury or Cissbury. My late mother on the other hand told me that as a child she had always hated the place and felt something wrong there. That would be the late 20s /30s.
Caroline Smith · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
Cooler in the circle, but it is on top of a hill and shady. No headless horsemen though.
@tooyoungtobeold8756 · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
It does feel a bit different up there but I didn't feel unwelcome. The wet chalk paths on the other hand (or foot) are most unwelcoming!
Susie Jenkins · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
I must be completely insensitive, as I didn't find it creepy at all but then in those days I was not aware of the legends.
@altair8598 · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
I spent a few years living in Worthing & visited Chanctonbury Ring a few times, even camped out there one night. Such lovely views from there.
@westcountryexplorer · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
Back in the 70's & 80's we'd quite often go up there especially at night... We tried it several times but nothing, just got knackered in the process
@Nightowl51 · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
It's just a place.
@garyfrancis6193 · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
whenever you hear the phrase 'most haunted' you can be assured it ISN'T haunted at all. After my 48 years of research...
@djmossssomjd8496 · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
The birds
You will read everywhere that no birds sing at Chanctonbury Ring. Here is where that comes from and what has happened to it since, in order.
| When | Source | What was said | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1935 | Philip Gosse, Go to the Country | "No birds live in this sombre wood but a single pair of yaffles, and occasionally the silence is broken by a loud, mocking laugh." | Origin, in print |
| c.1989 | YouTube comment, 2024, recalling a late-1980s visit | "I visited the ring in the late 1980s fully aware of its history. Like you say, there were no birds to be heard." | Primed observation |
| 2011 | Blog, occult writer | "I noticed that no birds were singing in the clump of trees (it was a beautiful summer day)" | Primed observation, reported as first-hand |
| 2024 | YouTube narration, Sam Walks a Lot | "you cannot hear any birds here just the wind" / "this place is birdless" | Amplified, stated twice as fact |
| 2024 | YouTube comment and reply, same video | "Did I hear a bird break the eerie silence - or was it the call of the undead?" Reply: "I haven't heard any birds at all while there, people, planes and screaming kids, yes. There are fields and trees just outside but no chirping inside." | Claim narrowed to the interior |
| 2024 | Facebook, Ridgeway and Ancient Tracks group | "Chanctonbury Ring, where no birds sing ...." Challenged, then: "just read it somewhere...." | Detached from its source |
| 2024 | Facebook reply, same thread | "what rubbish, I was up there often as a youth and there were always birds about." | Refuted by a witness |
The narrowed version and the 1935 version are almost the same sentence. Birds outside, none inside. That one has held for ninety years. The slogan version lasted until somebody who'd been going up there for thirty years read it.
Now, I've recorded the dawn chorus in the Ring so I'm pretty sure that birds sing there. That said, there have also been occasions when it seems eerily silent.
The children
Three accounts of children's voices. It's a popular family walk and there are children up there most days.
I haven't heard any birds at all while there, people, planes and screaming kids, yes
Sam Walks a Lot · YouTube reply, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
Visibility was terrible, down to just a handful of yards, with wind and blown rain. On said wind I could hear the voices of children which was nothing but eerie given what had doubtless gone on there in pre-Roman times. As I got closer I saw the glimmer of a fire through the murk. It turned out to be a young dad with his two young'uns having a pagan ceremony of sorts.
@yojimbo103 · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
This commenter also mentions British Camp in the Malverns elsewhere in the same thread. I have not established for certain that this account is about Chanctonbury.
in my sleep i heard a really vivid sound of children laughing in my ear!
@elephantsdontforget · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
I too have heard the dread sound of a child's voice at The Ring. It was my son, asking if I'd remembered to bring any snacks.
Animals
The folklore says dogs won't go in. One commenter gave the version he'd heard: "There is a myth that dogs won't go inside the ring itself, but back in the ancient days people of the area worshipped a goddess named Hecate that the Romans bought over and would sacrifice dogs to her."
I decided to walk to with my spaniel. He was a typical spaniel into everything, I was walking around the ring he was in and out dashing about, then suddenly he came running out looking very sheepish, and frightened, which was not like him. He then would not go back into the woods and was clearly not happy,,, which did spook me aswell, so I decided to leave. And before that happened I had to say it had a strange vibe, it was a sunny summeres day.
@tinapartridge9303 · YouTube comment, TheSecretVault, 2025
I rode up there after the Storm, the trees on the outer ring were still standing, but some near the bank had fallen. I found a bit of mosaic tessera from the alleged Roman temple. Another time archeologists digging there found a bronze boar which they lent me to draw. My horse was always scared up there and spooked at it
@alisonmilner-gulland6585 · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
our wife, myself and our spaniel... our dog refused to cross a nondescript section of the path. We had to lift her over. This would have been maybe half a mile to the east of the Ring.
@altair8598 · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
Against which:
I've camped in the woods below the Ring many times alone with a dog or with friends and have hiked all around here. The dew pond is particularly beautiful and atmospheric on a starry summer night! I was heartbroken when the 1987 storm tore the Ring apart and it will never look the same in my lifetime.
@DizMO-j9k · YouTube comment, Haunts and Jaunts Adventures, 2025
Never felt anything strange there. Our little dog was fine there too.
Geraldine Scott · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
Sounds at night
The best known account is Robert Macfarlane's, from The Old Ways (2012). He slept at the Ring and was woken twice by cries at treetop height, circling. He also found a 1966 account of bikers who spent the night, heard a woman's voice moving around the circumference, fled, and afterwards complained of headaches and lassitude in the limbs. Both are on the Research page with page numbers (pp. 251, 253). I'm not going to reproduce them here.
I bumped into a wild camper one morning who told me, unprompted, that he had heard rhythmic metallic banging, like hammers, at about 3 am.
What's below is what turned up on its own, from people who weren't asked.
I first heard of the ring some years ago while watching a TV programme on walking the south downs way, days of VHS video recorders so it was a while ago... I remember him pitching his tent at the ring and the next morning he appeared physically shaken, he said he'd been woken up in the night by screaming coming from above his tent and circling it, don't think he ventured out of the tent he was that scared and by the look of him he didn't get any sleep, love to know what that program was.
Andy Davidson · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
I have not identified the programme. If it exists it is VHS-era, so decades before Macfarlane published the same geometry in 2012. If you know what it was, the form is at the bottom.
we were lying in the dark, in our tiny tent, covered with one of those silver plastic emergency blankets to help keep warm and we heard the weirdest loud noises outside and we were so scared that we silently signalled to each other to jump up and unzip the tent, but the crinkly emergency blanket and tent zip made such a noise that everything was totally silent by the time we looked out of the tent!
Caitlin Howells · Facebook, Ridgeway and Ancient Tracks group, 2024
Her companion on the trip confirmed it in the replies: "Yes!! It was so strange - I think I made you look outside haha!"
Same thread
And in the same threads, at the same time:
prob just an owl that macfarlane heard.
Ben Lovegrove · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
it probably was, but in similar circumstances I dare say we would all be on edge and misinterpret.
Chrissy Nye-Gibbons · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
Macfarlane admitted after the book was published that he had heard young tawny owls that night
Susannah English · Facebook, Ridgeway and Ancient Tracks group, 2024
Unverified. I have not been able to find a source for this and I am not treating it as settled. If you have one, please send it.
Things people have found
Physical things, left by people.
Didn't you find a dead black cockerel hanging upside-down from a branch, when you first rode beneath the scarp there, in the early 1980's?
@j.jackj.9057 · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
My archaeology lecturer excavated there after the storm of 87. He found several modern crematorium urns and would cite this as 'continuing use' of an ancient hill fort. Seemed to be quite a popular thing - sprinkling ashes then lobbing the urn into the undergrowth. Findon Crematorium isn't far away.
Katherine Ash · Facebook, Ridgeway and Ancient Tracks group, 2024
My brothers ashes were scattered up there lots of happy memories of when we were kids growing up and waking our dogs years later lovely footage one place that's never changed since my childhood
@carronsnelling5904 · YouTube comment, TheSecretVault, 2025
I walked up there at dawn a few years ago on a foggy and frosty morning with my toddler in a back carrier. Couldn't see the trees until you were almost on them and they loomed out of the fog. Didn't (couldn't) see anyone else but on top of one of the burial mounds along the SDW was a perfect imprint of a human body doing a star shape where the body heat had melted the frost.
James Trotman · Facebook, Ridgeway and Ancient Tracks group, 2024
there was a sleeping bag there, on a tree branch, hopefully it's owner was okay
Sam Walks a Lot · YouTube reply, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
3 4WD's parked next to the Ring, with their drivers packing up after a nights camping...Quite what these individuals were doing up here on the midsummer's eve I don't know.
danielspaniel · The Modern Antiquarian, fieldnotes, 6 July 2005
Do not go here at night. I didnt know about it and I camped here when I cycled the south downs way - basically some nutters turned up and started doing black magic.
@chrisdickinson4576 · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024
Somewhere else
Threads wander. In every one of these, somebody turned up to talk about a completely different place, and I've kept them because that's what actually happens.
I suddenly freaked the absolute hell out, something just felt so dark and evil I went out of there like Lewis Hamilton in a tranny van. I was a walker too and have spent the summer solstice at Avebury, and been to many similar sites but that one time........
Philip Payne · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
as though I shouldn't be there. I left quite quickly and didn't take any photos as it didn't feel respectful.
Fi Bolle · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
very strange vibrations in my legs (that I've never felt before or since)
Billy Ricci · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
I felt as if I was being watched by many people.
Lorna O'Connell · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
immediately had a feeling that I was interrupting something
Sarah Whiteman · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
Alderley Edge and Cissbury Ring also came up in the same thread, too briefly to quote.
Not everything is a ghost
Somebody posted a photograph of the Ring in a thread about strange experiences and asked what people could see in it.
I was taken aback by the old gate post to the right of the path, but expanded the image and saw what it was.
Nick Swarbrick · Facebook, Uncanny Fans group, September 2025
The worst experience l had a Chanctonbury Ring was when my daughter got a chalk stone and wrote her name down one side of our nice new black car. Well, it wasn't a good experience for her, anyway.
Kay Brunt · Facebook, Ridgeway and Ancient Tracks group, 2024
In my misspent youth I slept a night on the ring. Lots of weird stuff going on! However I did have a head full of shrooms so not a big surprise!
Mark Haffenden · Facebook, Ridgeway and Ancient Tracks group, 2024
It used to be called the off license because it was full of whines and spirits.
@twiglet2214 · YouTube comment, Sam Walks a Lot, 2024