Boadicea’s Grave

Also known as:
Parliament Hill
Nearest town:
Golders Green (4km W)
OS reference:
TQ274865
OS sheet:
176
Latitude:
51° 33' 44.79 N
Longitude:
0° 9' 42.63 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Boadicea’s Grave (Round Barrow(s)) by Zeb

I have read on the MA website that some believe this site to be authentic whilst others have their doubts. I pass over Parliament Hill often and have always thought it to be an ancient burial mound (without any justification). On the hot evening of 19 June 2005 CE I observed this woman conducting what looked to be a ceremony of some kind. My friend said this pic looked posed but I can assure you it isn’t. I only hope the woman in the photo doesn’t mind me posting it here!

Zeb
Zeb Jun 22, 2005
Image of Boadicea’s Grave (Round Barrow(s)) by Kammer

Taken 23rd July 2002: This site has no sign to mark it, so I don’t know what the ‘experts’ think it is. According to the Web site that Riot Gibbon has posted, it’s a Bronze Age barrow, but I’ve heard mumblings that this might not be the case. Does anyone know any more?

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer Aug 2, 2002

Articles

Boadicea’s Grave

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Nov 11, 2009

Stuck in London on a two day Finance Course (yuck), blue skies and September sunshine warranted a tube ride to Hampstead and a walk over the heath. The barrow is sadly fenced off, but is very large and prominent. It’s covered with trees and surrounded by vegetation, so the full form is not easy to see. There may be a ditch around the barrow.

As mentioned below, it’s well worth the trip on a nice day for the views from Parliament Hill.

Boadicea’s Grave

juamei
juamei Nov 26, 2002

Unfortunately another London monument of dubious antiquity, but don’t let that spoil it for you.

It looks like a large, well preserved bronze age barrow which seems from a cursory look to have a ditch. Its located on a high point and gives lovely views down a valley to the Thames.

While you are here, take a walk up to Parliament Hill and get a fantastic view over the city.

Folklore

Boadicea’s Grave
Round Barrow(s)
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Dec 23, 2024

The Supposed Tumulus In Parliament Hill Fields.
Nothing has come of the excavations undertaken by the County Council on the supposed tumulus in Parliament-hill fields. The result is exactly what many persons expected, for the legend connecting the British warrior queen with the mound is of the vaguest possible character. There are not wanting old inhabitants of the neighbourhood who assert that this particular mound has only attained to notoriety as “Boadicea’s Grave” within their own time, and that it was so christened by some practical joker who wished to impose upon the learned. Others of an antiquarian turn believe that genuine tumuli exist in the higher regions of Hampstead, bordering the Mansfield estates, but certainly not in Parliament-hill fields, which were in old times the dumping grounds for all sorts of rubbish. Anyhow the digging of the authorities has come to nought.

London Daily Chronicle, 5th November 1894.

Folklore

Boadicea’s Grave
Round Barrow(s)
Rhiannon
Rhiannon May 9, 2007

Tom Graves describes a modern day ‘retribution’ story:

.. in the case of some barrows a thunderstorm followed within hours or minutes of the opening of the barrow. The same coicidence still occurs from time to time, as happened when a barrow on Parliament Hill in north London was opened recently; and I’ve heard that it is apparently a respectable piece of professional lore amongst present-day archaeologists. What is not respectable is to suggest that there might be a causal link between the breaching of the barrow and the thunderstorm that followed.

He goes on to suggest that the effect could be ‘exactly like short-circuiting some kind of ‘thunderstorm capacitor’. From p86 of his book on dowsing, ‘Needles of Stone Revisited’ (1986), which is actually free to download here:
tomgraves.eu/needles

Sites within 20km of Boadicea’s Grave

Like all websites everywhere, we use cookies.