Little Lodge Long Barrow View all content for Little Lodge

Chambered Long Barrow Part of the Black Mountains Group of Tombs OS map required Permission to visit required from Little Lodge farm. Although a public right of way does cross the field. A438 from Brecon. At Three Cocks take turning on right just beyond hotel signposted: Velindre. Less than 1km later at the crossroads continue ahead do not turn right for Velindre. Around 1km later (the first building you reach) is the Little Lodge farm on the right. The barrow is in the field before the farmhouse (on the right). Set back against the field boundary on the side of the field furthest from the house. The barrow sits between two trees and is easy to locate. This was the first of two long barrows I visited that day where hawthorn trees have been allowed to take root on the barrows causing extensive root damage. Excavated in 1929. Orientated north-south. The mound is in a cultivated field and is badly damaged. Many small cairn stones lie around the site. Measurements are given as 55.5m by 22m. There is a chamber at the southern end (no capstone). Wedge box shaped, that is to say, narrower at one end and broader at the other. About 2m by 1.4m, consisting of five stones, all less than 1m in height. At the southern end, one either side up against the outside the chamber are two stones aligned west-east. I guessed at it being a forecourt of some kind, but according to the plan the one on the right is the remaining upright of another chamber which would have stood next to the remaining one, or in English: two contiguous chambers with one common side. To the west of the chamber are three stones just breaking the surface. Archaeologists are unsure of their function. The largest stone there, is a huge traverse slab towards the northern end, supposedly from the main chamber. It is almost 3m long, 1m high and 0.45m wide. To its east is a broken stump of a stone also arranged transversely. Further towards the northern end (covered in nettles) is another low slab, which according to the plan is the eastern side of a chamber. Apparently kerbing is visible at the northern end, but my summer visit co-incided with the height of nettle growth so I didn’t see it. Well ruined, but enough remains to keep a visitor occupied, I like the guidebook which says ‘possibly a typical Severn-Cotswold type’.

Posted by elderford 14th August 2003ce

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