Not much to add to Rhiannon's post, except that the stream is the small River Boyd, the barrow sits on an elevated rise above the river; note the presence of the church further to the east, and there is of course the old roman road (via Julia probably) that goes through Bitton. Could also be pre-existing prehistoric trackway which I am sure it was. Lynchets on the Golden valley side and of course the odd stone marked on 19th c maps following the line of the Boyd, not to forget that the occupant of the barrow must have decreed in his last will and testament, bury me down by the river with that hill (Kelston) in sight.
Tootling - nah, whizzing along the cycle path this morning I could see the barrow quite well. Admittedly it looked a bit more like a mound of dirt covered in weeds from this elevated angle. But I still like it. And not only does the fantastic Kelston Round Hill stand out like a beacon on the horizon, but now I could see that in the opposite direction was the distant but distinctive Maes Knoll. It's very flat here down here on the floodplain, so it seems an unusual place for a barrow. But there's no point in trying to compete with such monumental landscape features as the Round Hill by putting a barrow on the hillside. And besides, if the people lived down here on the fertile flat bit, then I suppose that's where their barrow ought to be. And perhaps the confluence of the stream and river has its relevance too.
I stopped by here just as the sun was setting. I wasn't expecting to see much, but actually it was a pretty top spot. The sun-lit ridge of Lansdown and the barrow-shaped Kelston Round Hill made up the horizon on one side. Near the barrow on this side is a stream. This leads into the River Avon, which flows close by (unseen). An overall feeling for the landscape is a bit obscured by the old railway - though it's now a path and you'd probably get a good view from up here of the overall scene.
What made me really mad at the time was how the field containing the barrow had been divided up by horse owners, who've stuck their usual 'private property keep out' signs all over the place. I felt rather intimidated, and was sure they'd blocked off the very footpath that goes right past the barrow. However, I wasn't feeling brave enough to get shirty with them. So I didn't approach the barrow as I would have liked (and as would seem perfectly reasonable from the map). My 1:50,000 map seems to have the paths in a different place to the larger scale one, and I would probably go back armed with the latter next time, and before I start whinging to the council about public footpaths*.
I was annoyed at the time, but looking back I think this would be an interesting spot to return to. The barrow was quite big, unlike the usual vague bumps you get used to seeing, and its position in the landscape seems interesting.
*you can now cross the fields quite easily - so long as you don't mind horses nibbling at you. You just have to unhook bits of fence and rehook them behind you. I'm sure it's better than it was.
This is truly miscellaneous, stones that no longer exist. But just to the east of Bitton Barrow, in between two fields called Mickle Mead and Holm Mead there are several stones following a line just above the River Avon.
So to record them for posterity the grid refs for Oldmap Uk are 367552,168907.
Well they maybe stones from a stone circle given their site near the river (and the fact that Stanton Drew is not too far away), this part of the world has a lot of Roman history as well, situated under North Stoke, in the hills above with its large 'spout' of water by its church and of course the church in Bitton also supposedly a 'heathen' temple..
The present site of the stones (which must have been moved in the 19th C probably for the road) is I believe a sewage plant!
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