I had noticed a large round barrow in Came Wood while driving past. This is not visible during the summer months, the foliage is too dense. The barrow turned out to be a large bell type up close, this is very similar to Culliford Tree barrow which is only about 100 yards away to the east. If anything this barrow is in better condition as it lacks the large excavation cleft in its crown.
An added bonus while in the wood was a large ring or disc barrow about 50 yards east of the bell. It is about 15 yards across and has a bank about 3 feet high. It has an outer ditch about 3 feet deep and about 3 yards across. This has no visible burial mound inside the bank and could be a ring barrow or a possible pond type like the one adjacent to Culliford tree.
One of the many barrows at Came Wood yielded a rare (for the South of England) example of prehistoric rock art in the form of a cist cover with three concentric circles. It gets a mention in Tate's 'Sculptured rocks' book, a more detailed description being given by the excavator. (Warne, C. 1866. The Celtic Tumuli of Dorset. London: John Russell Smith.)
Came Wood is a feast of Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows of several varieties. The round barrows and long barrow south of the woods are generally on arable land and under cultivation, but in the wood itself there are 2 bell barrows, a pond barrow and a long barrow.
They lie at the end of the cemetery of barrows that stretch along the South Dorset Ridgeway. It has been suggested that they formed the boundary of territory based around the major Neolithic ritual monuments of Maiden Castle, Maumbury Rings, Mount Pleasant and the destroyed Flagstones and Greyhound Yard sites in Dorchester.