Rollright Stones

The Rollright Stones are three Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments on the Cotswold scarp near Long Compton. The ridge between the Stour and Swere valleys has yielded local oolitic limestone, which formed the King’s Men stone circle, the Whispering Knights dolmen and the King Stone monolith. They were built at different times between the 4th and 2nd millennia BCE, showing a long tradition of ritual use on this high ground. Archaeologists recognise the Whispering Knights as the earliest, a Neolithic burial chamber used for interments. The King’s Men followed in the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, a circle whose northern parallels suggest wider cultural links. The King Stone, probably a Bronze Age grave marker, completes the trio, set apart on the Warwickshire side. Local folklore tells of a king and his knights turned to stone by a witch, stories still told in the 19th century. Visitors walk a ridge path between the monuments, each reached by short climbs. The King’s Men circle stands on Oxfordshire turf, its stones weathered by centuries of wind and rain. The Whispering Knights dolmen, four uprights capped by a capstone, lies eastward across the grass. The solitary King Stone, half a mile away, marks the Warwickshire boundary under wide sky.