Rollright Stones
 Prehistoric Britain |
The Rollright Stones are one of the most famous megalithic sites in Britain. The complex today consists of three distinct groupings of stones - the Whispering Knights are the oldest, the King's Men Stone Circle is the best known and the King Stone the last to be erected in about 2000BC.
The name "Rollright" may well have derived from the ancient term Hrolla - landriht, or the later derivation Rollindricht meaning "the land belonging to Hrolla".
The Whispering Knights are the earliest of the stones to be erected, dated to the early Neolithic period between 4000-3500BC. There are five stones in the group but only three remain standing; leaning in on each other in a conspiratorial manner they appear to be "whispering" secretly. The Knights are the remains of a portal dolmen, a type of burial chamber most often found in the western regions of Britain - the tomb beneath would have contained dismembered human remains.
The King's Men Stone Circle is the principal attraction in the complex, constructed later than the Knights in around 3000-2500BC. This large circle consists of 77 stones, a ceremonial monument with several alignments connected to it. Some early writers described a stone avenue leading from the circle, as at Stonehenge. The circle may have fulfilled several functions - a place of assembly, a ritualistic site involving rites of passage and death, possibly too there was an astronomical significance when conjoined with others of the monuments.
The King Stone is an "outlier" thought to have been erected some 1000 years after the circle. Possibly it functioned as a marker for a nearby Bronze Age cremation site, or perhaps it played a more significant role amongst the ancients. Linked to the nearby circle astronomically, in common with other prehistoric rings, the King Stone may well be the point over which the midsummer sun rose.
The Rollright Stones remains an extremely atmospheric site, and it is not difficult to imagine how fanciful folktales have become attached to its origins. As with other stone circles folklore has it that it is impossible to count the same number of stones twice over - should you achieve this feat you will be darkly cursed! The most familiar legend connected with the complex has the king, with his men and knights, whilst marching over the Cotswolds being confronted by a powerful witch - unable to turn them back she conjures them all to stone. The king is set apart, his men form a circle and the knights whisper treacherously further off. Local superstition abounds in this evocative landscape - Faerie folk are said to live beneath the circle in large subterranean caverns, seen by locals dancing around the stone uprights by moonlight.