I wasn’t necessarily expecting much from this, a barrow in a field with all the attendant risk of being ploughed down to nothing. It comes as a very pleasant surprise to find this is a very decent monument, a good upstanding mound with a few stones embedded in its top and sides. As Carl notes, there are good views down to the valley below; the Rhymni valley in this instance, as this barrow is at the top of a southwest-facing slope, unlike the other monuments I’ve visited today. The name (“Hillock of the Fair Hollow”) seems very apt. It’s a great site to finish the day despite the failing light, and lifts me after the irritation of my experience on Mynydd Machen.
Visited 20.6.10.
A lovely sunny day and an easy site to visit. Follow the lane north through Lower Machen village off the A468. Turn right along the Sirhowy Valley Walk and the barrow is easily seen on your right hand side about 20 metres away on the brow of the hill. A quick hop over a barbed wire fence and you are there! The barrow is about 1.5 metres high / 5 metres long and about 3 metres wide. The barrow has clearly been dug into at some point in the past. Small stones protrude above the grass at various points. The views down the valley are lovely and make the trip worthwhile alone. A nice place to visit.
"A turf-covered stony mound with dimensions 13m (E-W) by 10m and up to 1.3m high. No obvious ditch or berm can be seen, though the surrounding field has clearly been ploughed, probably up close to the mound which was perceived as an obstacle (1999 visit).
20m to the S is a modern mound capped with a man-hole cover.
Note: when visited in 1989 pipe-laying trenches had been dug across the field in question, one glancing the SW edge of the mound, and meeting at right angles at the mound with man-hole cover."
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