Details of long barrow on Pastscape
SP 10890924 (1). The Ablington Beehive Chamber is an underground circular chamber situated in the south slope of a long low irregular mound, which, though covered with undergrowth, appears to be aligned roughly E/W with a length of over 150 ft. The chamber is constructed with dry-stone-walling, with stone seats and three cupboards or niches, above which the wall is corbelled to an entrance at the top, 6 1/2 ft above the floor. It was excavated c 1865 by Samuel Lysons, and again in 1925 by A D Passmore and E C Daubeney, when no dating evidence was found apart from a module of flint foreign to the district. Locally it was supposed to be a shepherd’s cot, but Passmore believed it to be a prehistoric burial chamber in a mutilated mound, possibly a barrow, and O’Neil and Grinsell list the structure as Neolithic. W F Grimes points out its similarity to the barrow near Saltway Barn (SP 10 NW 2) and other neighbouring barrows, suggesting a culturally distinct sub-group of the long barrow folk. There is a tradition of another bee-hive chamber being found in Hole Ground, a few hundred yards to the NE.
A possible long barrow orientated WNW-ESE measures 40.0m by 14.0m by 0.5m high. The corbelled chamber is exposed towards the west corner of the south side. ‘Hole Ground’ is not known locally. Surveyed at 1:2500 on PFD.