Rollright Stone Circle, Oxfordshire

see extras words to follow tomorrow

Well the words took several days to come up with due to an unexpectedly busy workload!

This lovely megalithic structure straddles the borders of Warwickshire and Oxfordshire apparently, it's sort of close to Chipping Norton. The site has been described as 'One of the wonders of Britain' and I think I'd have to agree. 

The site is accessible 24 hours and if you time your visit with care you can quite easily get the stones all to yourself.

There is a stone circle (pictured) and the legend has it that they are impossible to count. I've seen a couple of times, a solitary figure walking around the stones furiously counting, loosing count and then starting again. It is actually more difficult than it looks. If you count them successfully then apparently you can make a wish and it will come true! I haven't yet tested the theory.

It's free to enter the site but there is a box to leave a donation towards upkeep. The parking is very limited and takes the form of two small lay-bys on a very fast road with no pavement and no obvious other alternatives nearby. I'd say there is enough parking for about 10 cars. A mate was going to visit in half term but I've advised against it as I reckon she'll be driving up and down the road for ages waiting for a space (she drives a huge van).

The King's Men is the name of the stone circle. It's super calm with lovely sweeping views and a really nice place to just enjoy nature. No fences so you can walk around them and even walk to the centre of the circle.

The King's Stone is a rather large structure within the confines of some old iron railings on the other side of the road to the main stone circle. It's not very well signposted in my opinion. The views from this larger stone are more impressive than the stone itself! Apparently it dates to Bronze Age so it's the youngest of the large historical stones on the site. It's certainly the least popular area on the site.

The Whispering Knights are a set of several large stones, again with an old rusty fence around them,  just within sight of the main stone circle, apparently they are the oldest stone on this site, early Neolithic and approx 3500 BC. The fence is very close to the stones so I think you can reach over and touch the stones if you want. I'd recommend trying to see these on a bright day towards the end of the afternoon as they have a lovely Cotswold Stone colouring to them which is very vibrant in golden sunlight (Jurassic Oolite Limestone apparently). 

In the 1980s there was some excavation and human cremation deposits were found nearby, including human remains in an urn. It's still not clear who put the stones in their location and for what purpose they were set in their position. When I was there it looked like I'd recently missed some sort of Pagan or Wiccan festivities as there were lots of ribbons tied to the trees near the stone circle.