Images

Image of Boyton Down Round Barrow (Round Barrow) by GLADMAN

Looked a bit more than 10ft, to be fair...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Boyton Down Round Barrow (Round Barrow) by GLADMAN

A very substantial round barrow more than compensating for the prohibitively overgrown state of the adjacent long barrow...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Boyton Down Round Barrow (Round Barrow) by GLADMAN

Approaching from Sherrington to the approx northeast....

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

Articles

Two barrows as different as chalk and cheese… as you might expect upon these bovine-inhabited chalk downs.

Boyton Down Round Barrow

This is one of the best round barrows I’ve seen: beautifully poised on the downs with magnificent views – it’s only a pity the dead can’t see, I suppose.

The MAGIC website says: “The monument includes a bowl barrow set below the crest of a north-facing slope in an area of undulating chalk downland and with extensive views of the Wylye Valley to the north and east. The barrow appears as a conical mound 25m in diameter and stands to a height of c.3m. Partial excavation of the site by Cunnington in the 19th century produced a cremation burial contemporary with construction of the monument as well as later intrusive burials. Although no longer visible at ground level a ditch, from which material was quarried during construction of the monument, surrounds the mound. This has become infilled over the years but survives as a buried feature c.3m wide. ”

Miscellaneous

Boyton Down Round Barrow
Round Barrow(s)

Two complementary – yet nowadays VERY different – prehistoric monuments still grace the rolling chalk of Boyton Down, rising due south of the eponymous Wiltshire village... although to be fair, a glance at the map will show Sherrington has an equal association.

Yeah, such is the extreme, overgrown state of the older Neolithic long barrow, that The Citizen Cairn had to double-check said map to confirm he was not going doolally, despite it measuring in at almost 150ft in length!

Thankfully, no such issues are prevalent with the very fine (10ft high) Bronze Age round barrow still standing tall a little to the NNW. Indeed, that is so large it was found to contain a primary cremation, plus thirteen later (Saxon?) inhumations upon excavation. Once again, clear evidence that folk back then were quite happy to venerate the traditions of those who went before... either that, or maybe simply fearful not to upset the old gods?

Worth seeing...

Miscellaneous

Boyton Down Round Barrow
Round Barrow(s)

Details of barrow on Pastscape

(ST 95153849) Tumulus (NR). Boyton. A bowl barrow, 25 paces in diameter and 10 feet high. It was excavated by W Cunnington who found a primary cremation and 13 intrusive, Romano-British or more probably Saxon inhumation burials. ST 95153849. This bowl barrow is 21 metres in diameter and 4 metres high. Published 1:2500 survey revised.Bowl barrow situated 300 metres to the east of Boyton Field Barn. The barrow comprises a conical mound 25 metres in diameter and about 3 metres high.

Sites within 20km of Boyton Down Round Barrow