Rollright Stones
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Image:Rollright Stones (96100107).jpg The Rollright Stones is the name of a complex of megalithic monuments near the village of Long Compton in England, lying across the border between the counties of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire (Template:Gbmapping). It consists of three separate sites:
- The King's Men, 70 closely-spaced stones that form a stone circle of diameter 33 metres. The stones are set on top of a circular bank with an entrance to the southeast marked by two portal stones. The site is unexcavated and so can only be loosely dated to the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age. It was restored in 1882.
- The King Stone, a single, weathered monolith, 2.4 metres high by 1.5 metres wide, standing 76 metres east of the King's Men. Some archaeoastronomers claimed ancient knowledge of an alignment between the King Stone, the centre of the King's Men circle and the star Capella as it rose in the sky. However, carbon dating of material found beneath the stone during an excavation in 1982 put the mean date of its erection at 1792 BC, much later than the other sites. The King Stone is more likely to have been a marker stone serving a now-destroyed cairn burial site.
- The Whispering Knights, the remains of the burial chamber of an early or middle Neolithic portal dolmen lying 400 metres east of the King's Men. Four standing stones survive, forming a chamber about 2 square metres in area around a fifth recumbent stone, probably the collapsed roof. In 1764, William Stukeley visited the site and saw the remains of a round barrow.
Folklore
Numerous folktales are associated with the stones, including the tale that a king was riding across the county with his army when he was accosted by a witch. She said to him:
- "Seven long strides thou shalt take, And if Long Compton thou canst see, King of England thou shalt be!"
His troops gathered in circle to together to discuss the challenge and his knights muttered amongst themselves – but the king boldy took seven steps forward. Rising ground blocked his view of Long Compton in the valley and the witch cackled:
- "As Long Compton thou canst not see, King of England thou shalt not be! Rise up stick and stand still stone, For King of England thou shalt be none; Thou and thy men hoar stones shall be, And I myself an elder tree!"
With that the king and his men were turned into the stones that now stand at the site.
Recent vandalism
The stones were vandalised on March 29, 2004, when yellow paint was dripped onto the King's Men circle. Cleaning it up is expected to be a very slow and expensive process, as ancient lichens cover the stones.