See latest news - Oxfordshire Artweeks 2017

The Whispering Knights project - Neolithic Echoes, is an ephemeral, ever-changing environmental and aesthetic project near the Whispering Knights Dolmen & Rollright Stone Circle in Oxfordshire.

The Whispering Knights dolmen is one of the most ancient portal tombs in Britain. Its chamber contains the bones of the first farmers of Neolithic Britain, who settled on the ridge opposite. The valley is one of the oldest sites of continuous cultivation in these isles. 

The erection of stones and the portal dolmen design is thought to have been brought to our shores by the first farmers, who may have arrived from Brittany in rafts, approximately 6,000 years ago. 

When the tomb was established, it sat at the edge of the main nomadic route through southern Britain, which greatly pre-dates it. This thoroughfare eventually evolved into a continuous via sacra, judging by the stone circles, tombs and megaliths that attend it from the far East of Britain all the way to Stonehenge. The Rollright Stones are but a small and attractive collection of erected stones covering millennia in a vast constellation across Britain. 

The remains of the ancestors of our most ancient farmers have not been disturbed. 

These standing stone structures sit at the nexus of ancient routes which are still in use today. Every year, thousands of visitors tread  in the steps of the ancient ones on Neolithic paths and routes which are uniquely preserved in Britain and have almost entirely vanished on the Continent.

Over ten acres of woodland to enhance and encourage wildlife and plant diversity.

Brash piles providing insect & wildlife habitats that decay over time and are eventually taken back into the earth, as mycelium and other factors work their magic and turn the brash into compost. 

More elaborate brash structures hinting at the mythology, stories and ideas that might surround such an ancient site. A reminder of our link with nature and the earth, those who have gone before us and those who will come after us.

See the videos

See the pictures