Well now, I could wax lyrical about this particular site. Located in the Cotswalds, near the Oxfordshire town of Chipping Norton, the Rollright Stones complex comprises three separate parts - the King's Men, the King Stone, and the Whispering Knights. I do have photos of these for you, but I haven't had the recent one developed yet, so they'll be up soon. The stones themselves are of the local oolitic limestone, and have been weathered by natural processes and the actions of humans (the Victorians liked to chip bits off, and so, apparently, do some unscrupulous and insanely selfish people these days) into a fantastic variety of shapes and sizes.
Dating from the late neolithic, at approximately 2500BCE, the circle is a Southern cousin of the Cumbrian circles of Long Meg and Swinsey, and currently contains approximately 76 stones. It is thought that orignally there may have been many more, and that they were set shoulder to shoulder in the circle. There are several legends associated with the circle, not all of them regarding ancient mythical figures - some fairly contemporary pagan personages have had stories told about them associated with this site.
The Whispering Knights is a longbarrow dating approximately 500 years earlier than the King's Men. The holed stone in the King's Men aligns with the Whispering Knights, although it is now impossible to take a sighting through it, as there is a tree in the way.
Entrance to the site is an extortionate (heh) 30p for adults and 20p for children. No dogs, no camping, no picnics. The volunteers who take your money are all honourable and interesting people (not that I'm biased at all) and will be happy to answer any questions you have (but if you know the bird in the tree is a finch, why ask us?).
Further details on this site can be found at The Rollright Stones Web Site and, of course, Andy Burnham has some great stuff (doesn't he always) - Rollright Stones.
| Visit date: | 16/01/2001 |
| Reporter: | Sam Fleming |
| Email: | sam@ravenfamily.org |
| Website: | www.ravenfamily.org/sam |
| Purpose: | Warden duty and archaeological work. |
| Time since last visit: | 2 days |
| Spoke to Land Spirits: | Yes |
| And they said: | Not much, was more a sense of being quietly watched. |
| Flowers: | Yes - A piece of mistletoe on the ground inside the King Stone fence. |
| Cigarette ends: | Yes |
| Also found: | A piece of rose quartz, shaped into a hexagonal rod, the top of which (about an inch and a half) had broken off and been left in the bush in front of the King Stone |
| Action taken: | The usual. |
| Visit date: | 14/02/2001 |
| Reporter: | Sam Fleming |
| Email: | sam@ravenfamily.org |
| Website: | www.ravenfamily.org/sam |
| Purpose: | Warden duty |
| Time since last visit: | Not that long |
| Spoke to Land Spirits: | Yes |
| And they said: | They were quite quiet, which makes a change, but it had been longer than usual since my last visit and they tend to get that way in those circumstances. |
| Candlewax: | Yes - On North Stone |
| Charcoal incense block remains: | Yes - on North Stone by candlewax |
| Soot damage: | Yes |
| Damaged Lichen: | Yes |
| Chipped bits: | Yes - On South-western portal stone, behind the tall one, at the back, where someone had forced in a piece of broken glass. |
| Objects: | Yes - Coins - totalling nearly £1-50, a note (back and front) and a piece of broken glass |
| Flowers: | Yes - hothouse |
| Cigarette ends: | Yes |
| Ritual remains: | Yes - Confetti from a wedding that had not been cleared with the Trust. |
| Action taken: | Removed all and ranted somewhat |
| Comments: | The mole is being very busy right now and the ground is suffering from all the wet weather but the mesh seems to be holding out well. It's the first time I've found an IOU at a site. |
| Visit date: | 25/09/1999 |
| Reporter: | Sam Fleming |
| Email: | sam@ravenfamily.org |
| Website: | www.ravenfamily.org/sam |
| Purpose: | Warden duty |
| Time since last visit: | 1 week |
| Spoke to Land Spirits: | Yes |
| And they said: | Hello. People have been again. You need to look at the others, it is worse there. |
| Nightlight remains: | Yes - in a jar |
| Candlewax: | Yes - Large outdoor candle on cane allowed to burn down and drop purple wax all over a SW stone. Stone was luckily wet so little damage done this time. |
| Fire damage: | Nothing new |
| Damaged Lichen: | Yes - a scratch on one of the stones |
| Chipped bits: | Again, nothing new. |
| Objects: | Yes - several coins and a piece of agate. |
| Flowers: | No, but there was a bunch of barley behind the N stone. |
| Cigarette ends: | Yes |
| Ritual remains: | Yes - Feathers stuck in the bases of the stones at three of the quarters, 2 pigeon, 1 crow. Every part of the site reeked of it. |
| Also found: | One of the loose stones from the bottom of the King Stone had been removed and a piece of slate and a broken sea shell left there. |
| Action taken: | The usual. It is my job. |
| Comments: | I really should try to update this more often. The missing stone is about 8 inches in diameter but angular and irregular. It was likely a stone from the field in the first place, rather than a placed stone, but that doesn't change the mentality of someone who would remove a stone from a site. I'm disgusted. The nightlight was in a jar - why could they not have been more careful with the other candle? All objects from last few visits now removed - going to get the agate next. |
| Visit date: | 19/06/1999 - 20/06/1999 |
| Reporter: | Sam Fleming |
| Email: | sam@ravenfamily.org |
| Website: | Sam's Rantz |
| Purpose: | Overnight warden duty |
| Time since last visit: | 1 week |
| Spoke to Land Spirits: | Yes |
| And they said: | The site was far more sullen and unhappy than it had been the week before. |
| Fire: | Yes - a ring of scorched grass left by druids banking the fire dish too high, having it burning for too long and not using any insulation in the bottom to prevent too much heat getting through. |
| Damaged Lichen: | Yes |
| Chipped bits: | Yes - no fewer than 11 new chips at the Whispering Knights, one of which appeared to have been hacked off with a bladed instrument, to add to the three new chips I found at the King's Men the previous week |
| Objects: | Yes - coins, small stones, plant matter wedged into the stones |
| Flowers: | Yes - local buttercups |
| Disturbed soil: | Yes |
| Picnic remains: | Yes |
| Cigarette ends: | Yes |
| Other marks: | Yes - runes and lines scored into the surface of the rock and the lichen, notably the capstone, at the Whispering Knights |
| Ritual remains: | Yes. Freshly spilled blood (not more than a couple of hours old) on the Sunday morning, next to a blood soaked thing made of thistle. |
| Action taken: | Tidied up, commiserated and sympathised |
| Comments: | I've seen some weird things there but not freshly spilled blood before, and the runic inscriptions are devastating. |
| Visit date: | 12/06/99 |
| Reporter: | Sam |
| Email: | sam@ravenfamily.org |
| Website: | Sam's Rantz |
| Purpose: | Warden duty |
| Time since last visit: | 2 weeks |
| Spoke to Land Spirits: | But of course |
| And they said: | I was surprised about the lack of ritual tomfoolery the night before as it was Moon Dark that weekend and the Friday night is popular. The site seemed more relaxed than it has been for a while, however. |
| First impressions: | Definitely more mellow and peaceful than it has been recently |
| Candlewax: | Only that small pink bit that is proving hard to get out |
| Fire damage: | Nothing new to the site, although there were camp fire remains round the back of the hut |
| Damaged Lichen: | Y |
| Chipped bits: | Yes - new ones, even. |
| Objects: | Yes - the usual assorted junk, although no plastic fish this time. Finally found the other piece of quartz that I've been looking for. |
| Flowers: | Yes - local buttercups |
| Picnic remains: | Y |
| Cigarette ends: | Y |
| Also found: | A purple furry spectacles case and three empty lager cans wedged into the Whispering Knights |
| Action taken: | Removed the rubbish, did the whole soothing over of ruffled featheres and sympathising thing. |
| Comments: | I was surprised at how relaxed the site was given that there was a fair amount of chuff there. Most of the chuff was hidden, as well, not obvious. |