Due to very heavy traffic I had been driving for over six hours, travelling between Devon and Northamptonshire, when my route took me past the Rollright Stones. I felt called to give up my attempts to reach my destination and to stop.

The Rollright stones are on the Oxfordshire and Warwickshire border and are said to date from between 2000-2500 BC. ‘The complex consists of three main elements’, and have been named (when I do not know) ‘The Kings Men stone circle, the King Stone and the Whispering Knights.’

I spent around half an hour there firstly walking up to the King Stone and then crossing the road and through a small wood to enter the stone circle itself where I walked straight to its centre. I walked around its inner edge and around its outer edge. I looked off in all directions trying to gain a sense of their place (which is when I spotted the small group of stones known as the “Whispering Knights” – completely missed on my first visit ten years ago.

The traffic of the roads, which I had been labouring through, had ceased to exist and as I stood there amongst these ancient rocks I calmly asked of them, and I believe out loud – “Why are you here and what are you for?” The question was immediately reflected back…

Thomas Paine

More information about the stones can be found on http://www.rollrightstones.co.uk/index.php