The Rollright Stones are actually monuments near the villages of Little Rollright, Long Compton, and Great Rollright, which are made of megalithic oolitic limestone. They are used as the county boundary line, between Warwickshire and Oxfordshire counties.
There are actually three different sites that make up the complete complex of the Rollright Stones, known as The Whispering Knights, The King’s Men, and The King’s Stones. Folklore of the area denotes that the stones are the petrified remains of knights, and their king, but archaeological research has found that each of the stones actually date back to a different time period.
The Whispering Knights are dated to the time period of 3000 BC to 4000 BC, and are the what is left of a burial chamber from the early to middle Neolithic times, about 400m to the east of the King’s Men. There are still four stones standing that combine to form a chamber that measures about two square meters around, and a fifth stone that lies on its side, which is probably the collapsed roof structure.
The King’s Stone is just a single stone that is a weathered monolith, which stands at 2.4m and is 1.5 meters in width. It is estimated to have been built between 1500 BC and 1800 BC to stand as a marker stone for a cemetery during the Bronze Age. It is located about 76m to the east of the King’s Men.
Finally, the King’s Men is the largest complex in The Rollright Stones and is made of 77 stones that are placed close together to form a circle that measures 22m in diameter. Each of the stones are set on top of a circular bank with a southeast entrance, which is signified by portal stones.
It is estimated that when the structure was first built back between 2000 BC and 2500 BC there may have been up to 105 stones. A third of the stones that now make up the circle were put back into their original places, when they were found during restoration efforts in 1882.
Like many Neolithic monuments, there is a great deal of folklore associated with the stones, including one tale that a king was solidified into a stone while he and his knights were riding across the area, by a witch known as Mother Shipton. The King is supposedly the stone now known as the King’s Stone and his knights make up the King’s Men circle.
According to legend, the knights and men come back to life at midnight and dance, but if you head out to the stones to wait for them to come alive then you will be turned to stone or die.
Folklore also surrounds the Whispering Knights with the promise that village maids can travel out to the knights to learn through whispers their fate and future, if they listen carefully enough.
The Rollright Stones have also been referenced in pop culture several times, as the title track namesake for a Traffic rock band song, and as the location for several scenes from Doctor Who.
