Parking at the start of the private road to Gorwell Farm (room for one car) the barrows are easy to see as low grass mounds in the field the other side of the fence. There is a metal field gate which gives access to the field. This was my starting point for visiting the nearby Grey Mare and her Colts.
E.H. state:
Two bowl barrows 283m SSE of the Grey Mare and her Colts
Two bowl barrows situated on the upper western-facing slopes of a prominent hill, overlooking a dry valley and with distant views to the sea. The barrows survive as circular mounds surrounded by buried quarry ditches, from which the construction material was derived. The western mound measures 29m in diameter and 1.3m high; the eastern mound is 24m in diameter and 1m high.
Quite a long walk to get to these barrows. It's a mixed set of various types, including one very low saucer shaped barrow, which looks like it's been heavily ploughed in the past. All but one of the barrows have signs of clumsy excavation i.e big holes dug into the crowns of them. Two of the bowl shaped barrows have chunks of stone on their flanks, which could be their former contents.
On the plus side the views of Abbotsbury swannery, Chapel hill, the Chesil beach and Portland are well worth the effort of getting here. Abbotsbury castle hillfort is only about half a mile away.
Dotted around the edges of the escarpment these sit on are former quarry diggings, the hillside is made up of lime stone cliffs, which may well have been used in the building of nearby Abbotsbury.
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Posted by formicaant
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