Long Compton

What to see in Long Compton

The Church of St Peter and St Paul is listed Grade I, and you enter it in an unusual way: under a cottage. The churchyard gate is a two-storey building of the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century with a thatched roof, cut through to make a lychgate, and Historic England lists it on its own at Grade II. The county history dates the nave to the early thirteenth century and the west tower to later in the same century, with a north aisle of the early fourteenth.

In the porch lies a worn effigy of a woman in reddish sandstone, her headdress of the early fifteenth century, her feet on a dog. The oak door carries the date 1620 in lead figures. Inside, the nave roof of the early fifteenth century rests on 12 carved corbels, five of them angels and one a mitred bishop, probably St Eloy. Look for the scratched sundials on a buttress, the south doorway and the porch. We could not find published opening hours.

Opposite the vicarage, a drinking fountain stands on the old base of the medieval village cross, listed Grade II. The Village Stores on Main Street won the Countryside Alliance's Midlands award for village shop and post office of the year in 2024, and its co-owner told the Stratford Herald that year that Bob Marley called in during July 1980.

The Rollright Stones and the King Stone

The Rollright Stones stand on the ridge about a mile and a half south of the church in a straight line. The King's Men circle is just over the border in Oxfordshire, but the King Stone, across the lane, is in Long Compton's own parish. The Rollright Trust charges £2 for adults and £1 for children aged 7 to 16 in 2026, and the site has no toilets.

The village's name is in the stones' best-known legend, in which a witch tells a king that if he can see Long Compton after seven strides he will be King of England. He cannot, and she turns him to stone. The county history adds that tradition made the King Stone a meeting place of witches, for which the village was notorious, and it records a case of witchcraft here in 1875. The witch and the King Stone tells the story.

A day in Long Compton

Start at the church and the lychgate. Walk up to the stones in the morning on one of the waymarked paths, pay at the honesty box, see the King Stone and the King's Men, and walk on to the Whispering Knights before coming back down. Have lunch at the inn. In the afternoon, Whichford and its pottery are a short drive east.

Walks from Long Compton

Shakespeare's Way and the Macmillan Way both pass through the village in OpenStreetMap, and the Cross Cotswold Pathway runs close by. The Rollright Trust names Long Compton as the nearest bus stop to walk to the stones from, and asks visitors not to use the parking by the stones as a base for a longer walk. We have not yet published a walk from the village with a route we can stand behind.

The Banburyshire newsletter

Events, new places and the best of the season, about once a month. Unsubscribe at any time.

Leave this field blank

Your name

Your email address

Yes, send me the Banburyshire newsletter

Sign me up

Food and drink in Long Compton

The Red Lion on Main Street is the checked pick: a Grade II listed inn with seven bedrooms, an AA Rosette for 2025, a play area, and dogs welcome in the bar and restaurant. It is about half a mile from the church. The Village Stores is also on Main Street, but it has no website and we could not confirm its hours.

When to come to Long Compton

Come on a clear day for the walk to the stones, and early on a weekend if you plan to park by the stones. The Rollright Stones open all year, and at night, since they are a Dark Skies Discovery Site.

Over the border

Long Compton is on the northern edge of the Cotswolds, and these places on our sister site, Cotswolds Info, are a short drive west and south:

• Moreton-in-Marsh, the nearest station, about 5 miles west
• Shipston-on-Stour, the small market town on the Stour, to the north
• Kingham, the Evenlode village with a station on the line from London