Old King Barrows

Nearest town:
Amesbury (2km ESE)
OS reference:
SU135428
OS sheet:
184
Latitude:
51° 11' 1.34 N
Longitude:
1° 48' 24.58 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Old King Barrows by thesweetcheat

Amesbury 34, the second barrow from the south in a little coppice.

Image credit: A. Brookes (25.11.2017)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 24, 2017
Image of Old King Barrows by thesweetcheat

Amesbury 36, the second barrow from north in the group, and probably the best.

Image credit: A. Brookes (25.11.2017)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 24, 2017
Image of Old King Barrows by Chance
Image credit: Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015. Open Source Environment agency LIDAR
Chance
Chance Mar 25, 2016
Image of Old King Barrows by Chance

The Cursus Group as seen from King Barrow Ridge

Image credit: Chance - March 2008
Chance
Chance May 25, 2010
Image of Old King Barrows by Chance

The first of the Old King Barrows is much reduced as it once housed a fuel tank when Seven Barrows Cottages stood here in the 1950’s

Image credit: Chance - March 2008
Chance
Chance May 25, 2010
Image of Old King Barrows by Chance

View of the central Old King Barrow

Image credit: Chance - March 2008
Chance
Chance May 25, 2010
Image of Old King Barrows by Chance

View of one of the Old King Barrows looking towards the site of the Cursus Longbarrow

Image credit: Chance - March 2008
Chance
Chance May 25, 2010
Image of Old King Barrows by Chance

New gate and fence enclosure for one of the Old King Barrows

Image credit: Chance - March 2008
Chance
Chance May 25, 2010
Image of Old King Barrows by Chance

New gate and fence enclosure for the central Old King Barrow. Another Barrow can be seen through the trees

Image credit: Chance - March 2008
Chance
Chance May 25, 2010
Image of Old King Barrows by Chance

View looking at the course of the Avenue, the hollow, over King Barrows Ridge

Image credit: Chance - March 2008
Chance
Chance May 25, 2010
Image of Old King Barrows by Chance

The route of the Avenue over King Barrows Ridge between the Old and New King Barrow groups

Image credit: The Ancient History of Wiltshire Volume 1 - 1812 Sir R.C. Hoare
Chance
Chance May 25, 2010
Image of Old King Barrows by Chance

Artist impression of King Barrows Ridge showing the movement of the Stonehenge’s Sarsens

Image credit: National Trust
Chance
Chance May 25, 2010
Image of Old King Barrows by formicaant

One of the Old King barrows is beneath the trees in the gap.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 28/05/09
formicaant
formicaant May 29, 2009
Image of Old King Barrows by Cursuswalker

Snowdrops on one of the Old King Barrows near Stonehenge. Feb 2000.

Image credit: Cursuswalker
Cursuswalker
Cursuswalker Jan 2, 2003

Articles

Old King Barrows

C
CARL Jun 15, 2010

Visited 12.6.10.
See my notes for New King Barrows.
All you have to do is keep following the track north and it leads you right to this group of barrows. Not as good as the New King Barrows but worth a look if you have time.

Old King Barrows

Cursuswalker
Cursuswalker Jan 2, 2003

Lying to the North of the New King Barrows, this group is slightly older and certainly less imposing.

The more northern barrows of the group are aligned with the Long Barrow that originally was the eastern terminus for the Cursus.

Further to the south another group have been very ploughed out over time, though they remain in clearings that give a good indication of their original size.

My photo is of one of this latter group.

Miscellaneous

Old King Barrows
Barrow / Cairn Cemetery
Chance
Chance May 30, 2010

The following account of the ridge eastwards of Stonehenge by William Stukeley, giving the term Old and New, to the Barrow groups.

At the bottom of the valley, and the end of the strait part of Stonehenge avenue, 100 cubits from Stonehenge, as we said, the eastern wing of the avenue turns off to the right, with a circular sweep, and then in a strait line proceeds eastward up the hill.

It goes just between those two most conspicuous groups of barrows, crowning the ridg of that hill eastward of Stonehenge; between it and Vespasian’s camp, separated from them both by a deep valley on each side. These two groups of barrows are called generally the seven king’s graves, each. I call that most northerly, the old seven kings graves, for there are really 7, tho’ but 6 most apparent; they are all set at greater distance, all broader, flatter, and as it is most reasonable to suppose, older than the other.

The other are set closer together, of a more elegantly turn’d figure, campaniform, and in all appearance, much later than the former. Therefore I call these, being southward and directly between Stonehenge and the town of Ambresbury, the new seven kings barrows. Of the seven old, the most northerly one and probably the oldest, is exceeding flat and as it were, almost sunk into the earth with age; so that it is scarce visible at a distance. The avenue runs up to the top of the hill, just between them: and they make as it were wings to it, and I believe were design’d as such, when set there.

Stonehenge, A Temple Restor’d to the British Druids, by William Stukeley, 1740

Sites within 20km of Old King Barrows

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