Devil’s Arch – A New Chapter in its Grizzly History

Devil’s Arch at Pencalenick, Truro, has witnessed more than its fair share of abhorrent acts of brutality, violent robberies, and murderous hangings, and the ghosts that haunt this darkened doorway to Hell will forever strike fear into the hearts of those daring enough to pass through its bowels. These ceaseless spectres can be seen by folk unlucky enough to be present as they stalk through their unending afterlife: spectres such as highwaymen and their aristocratic prey; coach horses that shriek through the blackened night, their galloping hooves and cries echoed by the arch’s staggered underbelly; and Royalist soldiers, who made their doomed last stand nearby, and were hanged from the bridge as the Cornish made their surrender to Cromwell’s New Model Army almost four-hundred years ago. Fear not for your own soul lingering along this satanic stretch of byway, however, for these entities are merely harmless shadows, a whispering of wind through the enveloping trees. Yet, should you fail to hold your breath as you pass through Devil’s Arch, the fallen angel formerly-known as Lucifer will possess your soul and drag you straight to the fiery pits of Hell.

I am a proud Cornishmen, and would like to think that if I was around all those years ago, I’d be one of those hanging from a noose in the name of defending this incredible county, and protecting its history and identity. Alas, I am merely here now, and also fairly chicken. Nonetheless, I have grown up on the legends left to be passed on in the wake of these events. My whole family tell them, yet none as passionately and scarily as my sorely-missed Nanny Biddy. I wanted to honour that special soul, and what better way to do it than to write a new chapter in Devil’s Arch’s grizzly history; a darkly-disturbing modern take on this remote location cursed with mystery, bloodshed, and murder; and to dedicate it to the wonderful woman herself. I urge you, my fine readers of old and new, to please read on for a glimpse into my tale…

Devil’s Arch, with its sinister past of demonic infamy, robbery, and hangings, has slept soundly over its remote Cornish backroad for centuries. Hoping to christen the new millennium with some backseat action, Austin rolls into the enveloping darkness, a cheeky grin on his face. Playing along, if only to appease his whimsical behaviour and get it over with as quickly as possible, Tamsyn soon realises that something is very wrong. With an ancient need to quell the hunger, and with a side helping of hellfire, the Arch awakens from its slumber.

Fast-forward fourteen years, an unintentional visit to the enigmatic old bridge forces Talek – edgy, awkward, friendless, and bullied his entire life despite the protective bubble constructed by his only two remaining family members – to seek answers. How did stepping beneath its jagged underbelly cause such excruciating pain? Who is the hooded figure that enters the dilapidated shell of the Church of Saint Cohan after nightfall? And why does his mother refuse to speak of the father he’s never met?

As answers begin to reveal themselves in macabre turns of event, and with ghosts both dead and alive from the past coming to haunt his every conscious thought, who can Talek truly trust? And who is next in the line of fire that his short life seems doomed to tread?

Part waking nightmare, part supernatural torment, teenaged Talek dares to dance with the Devil, dreading the realisation of whose final earthly breaths this malevolent archway to Hell conspires to consume next.

As Talek embarks on another school year, he expects the usual insults and beatings. He’s a smart kid, so expecting to be right, circumstances do not disappoint. One change to his social network on the first dreaded day back from a summer of solitude, however, does come as a surprise: he’s infinitely increased his list of friends from zero to one.

Growing up in the all but forgotten hamlet of Merther, Cornwall, at the behest of his introverted mother, had been tough. Having no father to look up to, and with scarcely a word uttered to aid him paint a picture of the man a youngster seeks to emulate, Talek had never managed to live up to the ‘man of the house’ status. Couple that with residing in the shadow of the nightmare-inducing, spectral skeleton of St. Cohan’s Church, he doubted that he ever could.

Now, with a child from his school disappearing in broad daylight, and the wolf pack becoming increasingly brazen, a chance encounter with an infamously haunted bridge in the remote Cornish countryside alters everything Talek thought he knew about the world around him.

As he and his new-found and only friend, Erin, search for answers to his conundrum, the finger of suspicion swings wildly. Is anything Talek and Erin uncover to be trusted? Do they even really know who they themselves are? And is “family” nothing more than an illusion?

With the web of deceit closing in, Talek is forced to take on Devil’s Arch one final time to save not just himself, but all he has ever learned to love.

Devil’s Arch is available to purchase on Amazon. The Kindle Edition is priced at just £2.99 (Free for a time to Kindle Unlimited subscribers; and printed in paperback for £9.99. If you like what you’ve read above, please head over and grab yourself a copy, or as a gift to someone else, and reviews are always appreciated.

Yeghes da!