Banburyshire’s Ancient Sites: ‘The Rollright Stones’

Banburyshire’s Ancient Sites:
The Rollright Stones

‘The Rollright Stones’ are not a single feature. It is made up of three distinct sites which span 1,500 years of history. Set within a landscape which gives views over a wide area, it sits upon an ancient route, The Cotswold Ridgeway, that spans England from east to west. Two miles away is The Jurassic Way, a Neolithic route running from Lincolnshire to Stonehenge.

Summary for ‘The Rollright Stones’:

Location: Rollright, Oxfordshire

Type: ‘Standing Stones & Circles’.

Condition: Restored, nationally significant megalithic site.

Access: Owned by a trust; usually open to the public but leave a donation in the box if no one is there.

OS Grid Ref.: SP296309

Further information: The Rollright Trust.

Walks posts for site:
• Betwixt the Nortons.

To be honest, I’ve very few photos of The Rollright Stones. I deliberately went for a walk to collect the images shown here to remedy that.

With so many sites to choose from in the area, most of which do not have a busy road or flocks of tourists around them, I can’t say that’s been a loss for me. Having walked the area for many years, near to here and further afield, this is but one of many sites to see.

The important fact to grasp is that The Rollright Stones are not ‘a thing’. It is a set of monuments, spanning millennia, which occupy the landscape. That landscape extends well beyond this immediate site, to the many other related sites across North Oxfordshire as well as the ones just a mile or two from here; which has been one of the motivations for making the ‘Banburyshire Ancient Sites’ collection. You can better understand this site by seeing those others too.

To explain the details of each distinct part of The Rollright Stones complex, this area is divided into three pages:

The King’s Men Circle.

Frozen in their dance, ‘The King’s Men’ hold their circle amidst the trees. These ancient stones are almost certainly not arranged as they were laid out, though the location has lost none of its splendour.

The King Stone.

Standing alone on the far side of the road, The King Stone enigmatically surveys the view, still unable to see Long Compton.

The Whispering Knights.

Across the field from the circle stand a small close group of stones; the knights ‘whispering’ their treachery against The King and his Men, cast out to the edge of the site.

The Rollright Stones are a spectacular place to visit. What I hope you will appreciate is that they are but one of many in the area. If you are able to visit those places on foot you may be able to understand far more about this landscape, and how this small site fits into that much larger story.