Mystery
The Murdered Bride
The stones were laid around their grave.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Tall standing slabs and a long stone chamber
- Legend from
- Local legend; Arlidge (1895)
- Best time
- Any
- Tone
- Melancholy
Two newlyweds were murdered on this hillside, and the great stones were set around their grave.
The Bridestones are the remains of a Neolithic chambered cairn on the southern slope of Cloud Hill, east of Congleton. Nobody is sure where the name comes from. One legend says a newly married couple were murdered here, and the stones were laid around their grave. Another version, recorded by J. T. Arlidge in 1895, says marriages were held at the spot in ancient British times. Others link the name to the goddess Brigantia, or to the Old English word 'briddes', meaning birds, because the stones may once have looked like birds. Arlidge also heard that large stones had been taken away to cover a nearby drain.