The King Stone

The King Stone is a standing stone in the Cotswolds, England, which dates back to the Bronze Age. It is believed to have been a marker for ancient trade routes or a ceremonial site.

This fine standing stone is located just off the crest of the low rise that supposedly prevented the King seeing Long Compton. Immediately to the north-east there was an early Bronze Age round cairn 17m across with a central chamber (of which the capstone peeps through the grass) set exactly at the top of the ridge.  There was at least one other Bronze Age barrow nearby and excavations in the 1980s revealed human cremations marked by wooden posts and others inserted into the top of the cairn.  The King Stone is most likely to have been erected around 1500 BC as a permanent memorial to the burial ground rather than being an outlier to the much older Stone Circle.

The name ‘King Stone’ may have originated, like some other standing stones of the same name, from its use to mark an important meeting place associated with an extensive Saxon cemetery in the vicinity;  but if so, the name may only reflect the adoption of the pre-existing standing stone.