The barrows at Therfield Heath are rather unexpected in this part of the country. They are beautifully positioned overlooking the ancient Icknield Way and you can see for miles across the flat Cambridgeshire countryside. There are five Bronze Age barrows in a group right on the ‘turn’ of the slope, and some way further back a Neolithic longbarrow, which was apparently reused in anglo saxon times. There are other round barrows on the heath too (even one with a bench perched on the top...). Part of the heath is a golf course so you do have to watch yourself crossing the greens, but the site is supposed to be a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It’s chalk and there are lots of interesting flowers, including (i haven’t seen it but if you get up there at Easter you might) the rare Pasqueflower.
Parking is easy – there’s a small ‘nature reserve’ car park at the west end, or drive through the golf club car park at the eastern end, and then make your way up the slope.
Go into Royston to see the ‘Roy Stone’ a 2 tonne glacial erratic placed at time immemorial? at the crossroads of the Icknield Way and the Roman Ermine Street. Also there’s Royston Cave, a v mysterious underground chamber with strange pagan/christian carvings of uncertain date but for some reason associated with the Knights Templar. That’s at the crossroads too – popular with ley line fans also.
The barrows at Therfield Heath are somewhere to clear your mind and think about the passing of time; I think they’re cool and pretty unmissable if you’re about in this relatively barrowless land.
Sites within Therfield Heath
Articles
In ’ Tongues in Trees,’ a work on plantlore published by George Allen in 1891, I read at p. 48 :— “The pasque-flower, Anemone pulsalilla, a native in the fields near Royston, is there supposed to have grown from the blood of Danes slain in battle.
Pasque flowers (with luck) still grow on Therfield Heath just outside Royston. And of course the long barrow must be where the Danes are buried? Quote in Notes and Queries January 7th 1911.
From the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, v3 (1856) – strange sounding barrow-like and subterranean excavations up on Therfield Heath. In all likelihood not as old as the barrows? – although flint tools were found in one, interestingly. But maybe inspired by them and their location?
An idiot’s guide to the Neolithic period in the context of Hertfordshire, this page contains a tiny photo of the Therfield Heath long barrow.