Lanhill Long Barrow View all content for Lanhill

Visited 20.3.11 What a little cracker of a site this was! Directions given by Monoman are spot on although it would be very easy to miss the field entrance / public footpath sign on the busy A420. Luckily as it was a Sunday the road wasn't too busy and I was able to drive slow enough to give me time to spot the entrance and pull over onto the grass. If I was going at any speed I would have missed it. Over the wooden stile and the Long Barrow is immediately in view to your right – and a big one it is too! I would guess about 40m x 10m x 3 m high. The best bit of course is the chamber itself – on the far side of the Barrow as you step over the stile. Next to the chamber is an old metal post which looked like it may have held an information board at some time in the past? The chamber has been restored with 5 metal bars holding the capstone up and a bit of dry stone walling can be seen (assuming this is not original of course!) The chamber is plenty big to stoop into, being about 1.5m x 1.5m x 3m long. There is a (blocking?) stone at the front of the entrance. Against the far wall was what appeared to be some sort of 'shrine' someone had built using flat stones to form a base and a 'phallic' looking stone placed on top – very odd! Sat in the cool chamber, looking out to the bright sunshine and the field beyond was a very peaceful experience. I would highly recommend a visit to this site – top notch!

Posted by CARL 21st March 2011ce

Comments (1)
This is my local barrow Carl and yes in my opinion it is a little gem and very much worth the visit. There was a green metal sign on the post many years ago. I think it was one of those Ministry of Works type designed and didn't have a lot of useful information..I think I may have some photo's of it somewhere. A couple of years ago the 'shrine' was created and a pile of blankets left in the chamber. I removed the blankets (they were leaping with flies and other crawleys) but left the shrine (or small pile of stones as they were) as it was doing no harm. The chamber supports are in need of a little repair as you may have noticed and I have reported this. Did you not get up to Lugbury LB just north of Castle Combe, that too is well worth a visit.	Posted by scubi63 21st March 2011ce
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