Belas Knap Long Barrow View all content for Belas Knap

16/03/2019 – We were staying a little way south in Bristol but it was just a quick train journey in the morning to Cheltenham Spa, followed by a stroll along the old railway line through town to get to the bus stop and the bus which would take us to Cleeve village and the start of our walk. Good bus most of the week, not quite as frequent on a Sunday. Normally it’s just me and Mrs T when we visit places but today we were in the fine company of thesweetcheat. We headed up to the top of Cleeve Hill via the nice Cleeve Cloud hillfort with its fine views out across the countryside. The forecast had promised rain at some point in the day but so far it was holding off. The wind though was pretty strong. After a visit to the county top and back round to The Ring trigpoint, we strolled across the hillside to make our approach to Belas Knap. The approach from Cleeve Hill is good. You get a good feel to the barrow's place in the landscape as it can be seen from a fair distance away. I was taken with the stonework on the false entrance beforehand, it had looked great from the TMA photos, even better seeing it for real. We tucked ourselves inside the chambers for a break from the wind. Made it easier to hear each other speak as well. The southeast chamber was a bit of a crawl. The restored bits of the long barrow are well done. The roof of the chambers are a little odd, like an upside down driveway, I liked it though. We walked from here down in to Winchcombe for a bit of cake and a coffee before taking the bus back to Cheltenham. A lovely day out and luckily no rain! So pleased to have finally visited this one. Great to meet up with tsc.

Posted by thelonious 25th March 2019ce

Comments (2)
It was a lovely day out, thank you both (the cake was yummy too). It's always good to see familiar places through fresh eyes. PS the chamber roofing will forever make me think of the Fantastic Four now.	Posted by thesweetcheat 25th March 2019ce
Fantastic Four - spot on :-)	Posted by thelonious 25th March 2019ce
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