The Rollright Stones

I've been in the Cotswold for a few days. It wasn't planned but was very pleasant! 

I visited the Rollright Stones were close to my lodgings so I stopped into visit. 

The Stones weren't all erected at the same time and are really collection of 3 different monuments. However the Stones take their names from a legend about a king and his army who were marching over the Cotswolds when they met a witch who challenged the king saying, “Seven long strides shalt thou take and if Long Compton thou canst see, King of England thou shalt be”.  On his seventh stride a mound rose up obscuring the view, and the witch turned them all to stone: the king became the King Stone;  his army the King’s Men; and his knights the Whispering Knights (plotting treachery).  The witch became an elder tree, supposedly still in the hedge:  if it is cut the spell is broken the Stones will come back to life.

The King's Men were built in the late Neolithic or early bronze age. Some of the stones were re-erected in 1882.

There is the legend that the stones are uncountable and that if you count them 3 times and get the same answer you can have any wish you like!

The Whispering Knights a dolmen (neolithic tomb) were erected about 4500 years ago and are the earliest of the three monuments.

There is a legend that the stones go down to the valley to drink on New Year's Day or when the bells of Long Compton church are heard.

The King's Stone is of uncertain date and purpose.

The shape is partially due to 19th century drovers and visitors who chipped bits off as lucky to charms and to ward off the devil.