(Image: Matthew Williams) This complex of megalithic monuments lies on the boundary between Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, on the edge of the Cotswold hills.
Whispering Knights, a single chamber tomb or dolman, was the first to be built during the mid-Neolithic period. This stone has been used extensively in the region for building everything from churches and houses to stone walls. A few other Mesolithic flints have been found in the surrounding fields. Starting in the Oxfordshire town of Chipping Norton the Rollright Stones and Stow-on-the-Wold are the main features of this ride. It is about a 3 mile walk from Chipping Norton to the ston The publisher has not added any attributes to this route. Whispering Knights, a single chamber tomb or dolman, was the first to be built during the mid-Neolithic period. Animal bones and carbonised crop and weed remains indicated a typical mixed farm growing spelt wheat and rearing sheep, cattle and a few pigs.A trackway and single ditch in the field between the Whispering Knights and the King's Men are visible as crop marks on air photographs. It is about a 3 mile walk from Chipping Norton to the ston The publisher has not added any attributes to this route. Whilst this is an ‘A’ road it’s generally not too busy, and easily cyclable. Acccess: The stones are located on Rollright Road along the Oxford/Warwickshire boundary between the A44 and A3400. The road is well signposted and should be easy to spot.After arriving in Stow and doing a small lap of the town centre where we would recommend stopping to explore and maybe even a spot of lunch. Just inside the western side of the enclosure a shallow curving gully may have surrounded a house; and outside it rock-cut pits were probably used for grain storage. They were replaced by the two copses either side of the stone circle that survive today.
At around either 1731-1719 or 1692-1500 BC (the date being especially uncertain because of a hiatus in the C14 calibration curve), the cremated remains of a child were buried with an upturned collared urn in a small pit close to the foot of the post. The ‘tunnel’ cremation consisted of a mixture of cremated bone and charcoal placed in a small cave-like hole hollowed out of the side of a rock-cut pit. During the Second World War a Royal Signals Corps post was sited on the natural rise by the King Stone to watch for enemy aircraft. They span nearly 2000 years of Neolithic and Bronze age development and each site dates from a different period. At that time there were 12 villagers, 3 smallholders and 2 slaves. The route starts and finishes in the village of Long Compton, where the local pub offers the chance for a post-walk pint.
She is likely to have been an important person in the community.
This ride has a number of challenging hills, but the reward is definitely worth the effort. There is parking space for several vehicles in a lay-by on Rollright Road, from which a level path leads to the stone circle.
From here it’s a short sharp climb to Churchill and on to the start / finish point in Chipping Norton Chipping Norton has a fine selection of old pubs for some refreshments after your walk. The remainder of the cremated bone and charcoal was scattered round the base of the post before its pit was filled in with well-packed soil and stones to hold the post upright.Another theory is that it is derived from an even older Celtic language ‘rod’ + ‘land’ + ‘ricc’ meaning the ‘ricc’ (groove, gorge or steep valley) by the ‘rodland’ (wheel arena) – i.e.