69. The King's Men. This circle of stones has been wrongly restored as a perfect circle. Sometimes considered to have been egg-shaped like Woodhenge near Stonehenge, we are about to learn its real shape circa 2,500 BC. Furthermore, the stones in the foreground did not form an entrance or exit.
MY SURVEY OF THE CIRCLE
William Stukeley was the first to note that stone circles were internal devices when realising that the best faces of Avebury's and Stonehenge's stones were placed facing inward. And despite looking worm-ridden, most professionals agree that some of the stones in the Rollright circle were placed facing inward as well.
This is Professor Alexander Thom's survey of the King's Men, wrongly measured through the centre of the stones to give 38 MY diameter.
Measuring the circle internally, we found this circle to be 37 Megalithic Yards in diameter.
67. See the sun trapped between the stones known as the Whispering Knights, in this picture. It's so small that some might think they could catch it. Better yet, find a way to reproduce it! Then, people might enjoy warm winters and grow fruits, vegetables, and grains all year round!
68. The humanoid family of stones is wrongly described as the Whispering Knights. We will prove this statement later!
70. THE KING'S MEN, looking more like an egg than a circle. But was it an egg, or was it something else? Drawing on our experiences when dealing with the complexities of wood and stone circles, we will find out.
The above image is from:- THE LONG BARROWS OF THE COTSWOLDS, BY O. G. S. CRAWFORD, B.A., F.S.A. NOVEMBER 24, 1920. The stones stand on the south side of the road, which forms the boundary between Warwickshire and Oxfordshire.
The earliest mention of the stones is that quoted in T. Hearne’s edition of Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle (1724, Vol. 11. 578): -
Translated from Latin: “There are large stones near the village of Oxford, placed by the hands of men as if under a certain connection, but it is unknown at what time, or by what nation, or for what purpose they were made to commemorate or mark. But the locals call that place Rollendrych.”
71. THE REAL ROLLRIGHT CIRCLE WAS OVAL.
Pessimists often claim that Britain's stone circles are too severely damaged for anyone to uncover the geometry on which they were based. Too few stones remain standing in their original locations; many lay scattered about as if having been attacked by vandals, and well-meaning stone circle restorers incorrectly place others.
Nonetheless, having started by focusing on the best-preserved circles, we have developed a reliable system that can indicate which stones are most likely to be in their original positions and those which have been misplaced or fallen.
The Rollright Circle.
The restored Rollright Circle, known as the King's Men, is currently a perfect circle measuring 37 megalithic yards, and the author verifies this measurement. Like the 36 megalithic yard perfect circle of Stonehenge, these are internal dimensions taken against the inside faces of the stones. However, the Rollright Circle has undergone several restorations, leading us to suspect that it may not have been circular, as a survey conducted in 1840 suggests it to be egg-shaped. This, too, is proved wrong.
The method.
Our system for resolving the underlying geometry of stone circles begins with a transparent printout, which we fold in half to determine, as best we can, a monument's real axis of symmetry.
Unfortunately, there is no more space left in this section to show it.
We find the King's Men to be an oval consisting of a pair of 37 megalithic yard circles spaced four megalithic yards apart. The axis of this oval points towards the nine-mile distant Nebsworth and Ebrington Hill. Photo later.
An oval is the “combination of two circles." Stonehenge has two of them: one aligned with the sun and the other aligned with the moon. Stone Age people regarded ovals as a type of language. This language was designed to bring the sun and moon together in astronomical intercourse.
72. A photo taken from the centre of the Rollright Circle to show where the sun sets in mid-December. But we must pass through the trees and enter the field beyond to view the horizon.
Well, that was then. Sometime before March 20th 2025, the trees were felled, and a new fence prevents visitors from entering the adjoining field.
73. And what an eye-opener it is. Whilst the far horizon might have been visible in the Stone Age with clearer skies and people's excellent eyesight, it takes a setting sun to expose the eight-mile distant Icomb Hill.
74. Imagine my surprise while waiting for the winter sunset that I should turn round and find the humanoid Stone 13 reflecting sunlight like a mirror.
Stone 13 is one of the few Rollright stones known to be undisturbed since new. We hardly need further proof that Stone Age folk reflected sunlight off them and into the middle of the circle where a timber four-poster once stood.
75. The concave shape of the inner face of Stone 13. This stone alone proves that all stones of the Rollright Circle were meant to reflect sunlight into the middle of the ring.
76. The poorest face of Stone 13 is outward.
Facing outwards proves that the Rollright Circle was an internal device for collecting sunlight.
Scientists today wondered what would happen if light was bounced between two mirrors. The outcome was the invention of lasers.
I'm reminded of a young lady I talked to whilst discussing Stone 13. I mentioned how the circle was designed to collect light like a Laser. Her response was to whirl her forefinger toward the sky as if to take off.
Exactly, I said.
77. From the circle, we cross the road to see the natural mound that Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age folks thought of as a gift from the gods. This natural mound is undoubtedly the progenitor of the long mounds known as long barrows and is what drew Mesolithic people to this place.
78. A cairn on the top of the mound Beyond that cairn, and at the other end of the mound, someone was buried along with Mesolithic flint, most likely collected from Norfolk.
More proof of the Megalithic Yard.
The cairn on top of the Rollright mound consists of two circles of twenty megalithic yards in diameter, with centres spaced half a megalithic yard apart.
The alignment of this oval is hard to predict. Our best guess is for azimuth 50 degrees. This is towards the summer solstice (northeast) versus the winter sunset in the southwest.
Source of image: An illustrated Guide to the Rollright Stones. By George Lambrick.
Update 20 March 2025: Originally, The King Stone was female and should be renamed the "Queen Stone."
How come? Drawings made in 1804 by Thomas Fisher show this stone as female and pregnant. Fisher's version was graced with a hole below the belly which some might regard as a vagina. If so, not only will this have connotations with other holed stones, like at the entrances to some burial chambers and long barrows. Unfortunately, the aperture in the Queen Stone gave ample reason to Puritans, antiquarians and those of the cloth to have the Queen's Belly removed.
The Queen Stone was placed to sneakily peer over the mound to where the mid-June sunset and northernmost moonset enter the wonderful notches in the nine-mile-distant Nebsworth and Ebrington Hills. So, why would a standing stone symbolising a pregnant girl be interested in where the sun and moon enter the ground unless that girl wants the sun and moon to copulate like her?
Source: An illustrated guide to the Rollright stones by George Lambrick. The image of the Queen stone can be found on page 10 of the guide.
It is commonplace to prevent the sale of books that provide the answers. This is protectionism. Lambrick doesn't offer a hypothesis for the Rollrights or the Queen stone.
79. A view from on top of the Rollright Mound. This is one of many alignments on the sun, moon and stars that benevolent nature gave to early man at Rollright some 9,000 years ago.
This is where the major moon will set in the Foxcote Gorge sometime in 2024/5, through a deep gorge forming a notch between Nebsworth and Ebrington Hill, some nine miles distant.
80. Also seen from the top of the mound. Summer solstice sunset on the evening of the 20th of June 2020.
The sun sinks into Nebsworth Hill at one end, and the major moon sets at the other, just like Woodhenge, near Stonehenge, where the sun and moon scan both sides of Sidbury Hill.
There is an old fable about a witch who turned the king's men to stone because the King couldn't see the village of Long Compton in the valley below. Nor can you see it in this picture because it's too far to the right.
This Fable was written by a certain Evans, who in 1895 failed to realise that Long Compton did not exist when the stones were set up.
So, bringing things up to date, I have rewritten Evan's poem to incorporate where the northernmost moon will set and will set again in 2024/25 through a couple of notches in the nine-mile-distant Nebsworth and Ebrington Hill seen above.
"Seven long strides shalt thou take, and if Nebsworth Hill and moon thou canst see,
King of England shalt thou be."
The exultant King cried
"Stick, stock, stone
As King of England, I shall be known."
But on his seventh stride, the ground before him rose up in a long mound obscuring his view, and the witch cackled.
"As long as Nebsworth Hill and moon thou canst not see
King of England, thou shalt not be.
Rise up, stick, and stand still, stone,
For King of England thou shalt be none:
Thou and thy men hoar stones shall be
And I an eldern tree."
This fable is another Red Herring that misdirects us from the facts.
Some go looking for the elderberry tree the witch said she would turn herself into, but no elderberry trees are found at Rollright. (Perhaps the trees are being cut down around the circle to plant elderberries).
84. More corrupt work from Professor Alexander Thom, corrected.
Measured internally, this is the actual geometry on which the stone circle of Dinnever Hill was set.
Draw a 50-megalithic yard diameter circle and four sides of a hexagon from it. Next, draw a half-size circle (25 My) in the middle of the 50 My circle, which will determine the centre points of a further pair of 25 My circles. Finally, draw a 45.57 arc to close the profile. This 45.57 arc was thought by Stone Age folk to be 45.5 MY, for they would not have known the difference.
85. Rough Tor is similar to Dinnever Hill, except that the centre of a pair of 35.023 circles (35) is placed on where an axis, 5-megalithic yards away from the centreline of the outer circle, intersects with the line made between the centre of the outer circle and that of the hexagon.
86. It is quite enough to expect Stone Age folks to have come up with geometric rings based on hexagons without expecting them to have concerned themselves with perimeter lengths in whole numbers, as Alexander Thom tried to do.
It is simpler to accept that Stonehenge is based on a 36 megalithic yard diameter circle, the Rollright circle to measure 37, Burnmoor 38, and Avebury's Sanctuary 47, all of which makes it likely that the design of Avebury and Stonehenge came under the influence of visitors from Cumberland.