GLADMAN

This is a large, upstanding barrow, well worth combining with the nearby long barrow

There are some that say winter is the only time to truly appreciate an ancient burial mound. I am not one of them.

There is a small pile of stones/cairn placed upon the barrow which was home to innumerable ants.

Hidden away in a woodland clearing a little under a mile from the fabulous Jackets Field long barrow..........

The great oval mound still survives to an appreciable height...

The great oval long barrow from the approx west..

Looking approx NW. It certainly does what it says on the tin.

The great long barrow is apparently a little over 6ft high at the south-eastern end...

Looking almost ‘head on’ from the south-east

If your long barrows are going to be overgrown... then let them be with bluebells?

Looking approx SE along the fine long barrow...

This is a pretty substantial barrow, damage notwithstanding.

Sadly, a ruddy great path carves its way right across the top of the mound... but, hey, at least the barrow is still here. From the west.

From the east. Isn’t it curious – if not criminal – how the owner of the house to the right was somehow allowed to erect a wooden deck upon a scheduled ancient monument?

Western bank

The most substantial remaining length of defences from Berefords Hill to the east. Again, this is as close as I could get without having the local constabulary called.

Looking across the ploughed out – or never completed... surely not? – southern flank to the western.

The clearly quite substantial western flank from the south. Unfortunately, this was as close as I could get... despite engaging over the fence with a local who suddenly appeared walking his dog to the monument’s left a minute or so later. You won’t be surprised to hear he had no idea what occupied the field beside him. Hey, ho.

A Mesolithic roof garden, if you will?

The celebrated – I have to say, justifiably so – sandstone crags so beloved by visitors over the centuries form the north-western flank of the hillfort.

The approach from the hotel... Mesolithic rock shelters topped by the remains of a hillfort? That’ll do.

I had put off coming here for years, wary of the whole twee ‘bride and groom posing upon a craggy rock like elitist Victorians-vibe’. However, once through the turnstile, this is actually a pretty impressive prehistoric site.

Pretty much how one might suppose a Mesolithic cave settlement to be, to be fair?