Rollright is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

West Oxfordshire West Oxfordshire is a local government district in northwest Oxfordshire, England, including towns such as Woodstock, Burford, Chipping Norton, Charlbury, Carterton and Witney, where the council is based. Area The area is mainly rural downland ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It contains the villages of

Great Rollright Great Rollright is a village in the civil parish of Rollright, about north of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. Archaeology The megalithic Rollright Stones are about west of Great Rollright, near the Warwickshire village of Long Compton. Par ...

and

Little Rollright Little Rollright is a hamlet in the civil parish of Rollright, Oxfordshire, about northwest of Chipping Norton. It is the village nearest to the megalithic Rollright Stones. An early spelling may be seen, its Latin form, as "Parva Rolrandrygh ...

and some of the prehistoric

Rollright Stones The Rollright Stones are a complex of three Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monuments near the village of Long Compton, on the borders of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. Constructed from local oolitic limestone, the three monuments, now known ...

. The parish is on West Oxfordshire's boundary with

Cherwell District Cherwell ( ) is a local government district in northern Oxfordshire, England. The district takes its name from the River Cherwell, which drains south through the region to flow into the River Thames at Oxford. Towns in Cherwell include Banbu ...

and

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

's boundary with

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

Andrew Breeze Andrew Breeze FRHistS FSA (born 1954), has been professor of philology at the University of Navarra since 1987. Early life Breeze was born in 1954 and educated at Sir Roger Manwood's School, the University of Oxford and the University of C ...

has proposed that the name Rollright is from the

Brittonic Brittonic or Brythonic may refer to: *Common Brittonic, or Brythonic, the Celtic language anciently spoken in Great Britain *Brittonic languages, a branch of the Celtic languages descended from Common Brittonic *Britons (Celtic people) The Br ...

phrase ''*rodland rïx'' 'wheel enclosure groove', where ''*rïx'' 'groove' refers to the gorge near

and ''*rodland'' 'wheel enclosure' refers to the King's Men circle of the

References

West Oxfordshire District Civil parishes in Oxfordshire {{Oxfordshire-geo-stub