I have long meant to see if this site is visible. It can be seen from the minor road which runs between Winterbourne Abbas and Portesham, I parked in a small layby on the west side of the road. The verge by the road had just been mowed and I walked along this, although this is a minor road it is very busy. The stones can be seen to the north, behind a water trough. They are quite small and I needed a long lens to get a photo of them.
This site is comparable to West Compton Down or Two Gates, which is several miles to the north near Eggardon Hill.
(65) Stones, possibly remains of chambered long barrow (SY 68 NW; 61408968; marked 'cromlech' on some maps; Plate 217), lie 1630 yds. W.S.W. of the church at 400 ft. above O.D. on a steep S.E.-facing slope, now in pasture. One large sarsen, an irregular oblong 8 ft. by 4¾ ft. and 1¼ ft. above ground, lies in the shoulder of a rounded scarp some 2 ft. high. A second sarsen, 4 ft. across and 1 ft. 8 ins. deep, projects from the scarp 5 ft. to the E. Three small boulders can be seen between these large stones. Warne listed this site among 'destroyed cromlechs' describing 'one large stone apparently the capstone with two or three others ... in a confused heap' (Ancient Dorset (1872), 136). The stones may not be in situ since the area was once part of the arable fields of Winterbourne Steepleton (Monument (12)), and the scarp is in part a lynchet ploughed down since enclosure. (LVG II; O.S. Map of Neolithic Wessex, no. 148.)
(SY 61408968) Burial Chamber (NR)(rems of) (NAT). (1) SY 61418970. An almost destroyed long barrow, possibly oriented
east to west with two large stones at the east end the remains of a mound. (2) Stones, possibly remains of chambered long barrow (SY 61408968) marked `cromlech` on some maps lie 400 ft above OD on a steep south east facing slope, now in pasture. One large sarsen, an iregular oblong 8 ft by 4 3/4 ft and 1 1/4 ft above ground, lies in the shoulder of a rounded scarp some 2 ft high. A second sarsen, 4 ft across and 1 ft 8 ins deep, projects from the scarp 5 ft to the east. Three small boulders can be seen between these large stones. Warne listed this site among `destroyed cromlechs` describing `one large stone apparently the capstone with two or three others.... in a confused heap`.The stones may not be in situ since the area was once part of the arable fields of Winterbourne Steepleton and the scarp is in part a lynchet ploughed down since enclosure.(3) SY 61408967. The two large stones noted by RCHM (3) are all that remain; they measure 2.7m by 1.5m. by 0.7m. and 1.4m. by by 0.6m. The scarp has been ploughed continuously and is now barely discernible. Published Survey (1:2500) Correct (4) The site lies at SY 6140 8967, on the edge of a dry valley which runs into the valley of the South Winterbourne, northeast of Coombe Farm. The remains comprise a slight, much ploughed, ovoid mound, orientated NE-SW, 17m long and 13m wide. Two large, recumbent sarsens lie on the south edge of the mound, as described by authy 4. The field has evidently been ploughed for many years: it once formed part of the open fields of Winterbourne Steepleton and it was arable land in the mid-19th century (Winterbourne Steepleton tithe map and award, 1841) (5). The site was surveyed using differential GPS at a scale of 1: 200 as part of a survey of the long barrows on the South Dorset Ridgeway carried out by English Heritage and the Ridgeway Survey Group (6).
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