Friday 3 July 2009

Rollright Stones








Last night Andy and I came upon the Rollright Stones whilst exploring the nearby villages. I could tell we were near the Rollright Stones by the marking on the road atlas, and given we were in the neighbourhood, decided to check it out. The proper access is from the A44; but we had veered off onto a small country lane and spotted the small "Rollright Stones" sign shown in the photo above. We pulled off the country lane and headed in the direction of the sign, through waist high grass/weedy path running parallel with a wheat planted field that went on for some distance. While the views of the nearby countryside are amazing, I must confess, after the first 500 yards with no Stones in sight, I was not prepared to walk for miles, given that I was wearing sandals and a summery dress (not ideal for walking overgrown narrow path lined with stinging nettles), but Andy insisted it couldn't be too far a walk, and we carried on walking through to the next field and about 50 yards into the second field, he spotted the stones in the distance, which ended up being about a 1 mile walk to the Stones and back to the car.




According to a website, the grouping of these rocks are a 5000 year old burial chamber, believed to be part of a Neolithic long barrow, called "The Whispering Knights Dolmen", a small group of five upright stones, who got their name because of the conspiratorial way in which they lean inwards towards each other as if they are plotting against their king. Amazing to think these stones (which would have been put in place somewhere between 9,000 and 8,000 B.C.) have been left untouched in their original position for all these years!

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