Superbly furnished with antiques and hung with fine paintings

Bridestones - Part of the National Trust

Visit the Bridestones website.

The Bridestones consist of a chambered cairn, built in the Neolithic Stone Age, near Congleton, Cheshire, England. In 1764, the cairn was 100 metres long and 11 metres wide; it contained three separate compartments, of which only one remains today. The remaining compartment is 6 metres long by 2.7 metres wide, and consists of vertical stone slabs, divided by a now-broken cross slab. The cairn originally had a stone circle surrounding it, with four portal stones; two of these portal stones still remain.

The site is protected as a monument of national importance, according to the Ancient Monuments Acts 1913-1953.

The origin of the cairn's name is unclear. Once legend says that a recently married couple were murdered at the location, and the stones were laid around their grave. Another possibility is that they are named for Brigantia. Alternatively, the Old English word for "birds" was "briddes"; the stones in their original form could have resembled birds, giving rise to "Briddes stones".