Do-gooders may ruin stone circle

More than 70 stones were attacked by the vandals

Well-meaning visitors to an ancient stone circle covered in paint by vandals have been causing more damage.

People visiting the Rollright Stones on the Oxfordshire/Warwickshire border have been trying to pick the stones clean of the yellow gloss paint.

But site manager Dohn Prout has pleaded with them to leave the stones alone until they can be properly restored.

When the original vandalism was found, angry pagan groups offered a £1,000 reward to catch the culprits.

We had 1,412 people visiting over the four days of Easter. If half of those picked at the paint it would have been a lot of damage Site manager Dohn Prout

They also held their own cleansing ritual at the site, near Chipping Norton, which was damaged the night before April Fools' Day.

It has been estimated that cleaning up more than 70 stones at the Neolithic circle could cost between £30,000 and £100,000.

Work has not yet been able to start on the clean-up as Oxford's postal strike has delayed the arrival of samples of the paint at a laboratory in Lancashire.

In the meantime, visitors to the site have been trying to take the paint off by hand, putting at risk important examples of lichen said to date to 1100AD.

Mr Prout told BBC News Online: "We had 1,412 people visiting over the four days of Easter. If half of those picked at the paint it would have been a lot of damage.

"It just does not help. Those doing it seem to think they are the only person to have thought of it."

It could take up to 25 weeks for the full restoration to be carried out.