baza

This round barrow lies 300m to the south-east of the Longstone and is probably the largest on Exmoor at 34m wide by 2.7m high.

It’s a three kilometres walk from the lay-by at Goat Hill Bridge on the B3358 to the Longstone, the tallest menhir on Exmoor. Formed from a slab of local slate, it measures 3m high by 1.25m wide and 0.25m thick at its base. There is a much smaller, companion stone sharing its hole, known locally as a trigger stone, which is 0.7m high.

It’s a walk of about one mile to Thor’s Cave, either down a dry valley from the village of Wetton or along a cyclepath which runs alongside the River Manifold.

I chose to approach the cave from the cyclepath, crossing the river on a footbridge below the cave. The riverbed is usually dry here, apart from in very wet weather, as the river disappears into swallowholes in the limestone bedrock and travels underground through this part of the valley.

Thor’s Cave is a popular calling point for visitors to the Dovedale area and the path up to the cave has been provided with many steps. The entrance to the cave can be very slippy on the usually wet floor, made smooth by the passage of many feet. An internal fissure allows light into the cave and a torch is required to explore its inner reaches.

Occupied from the end of the ice age, a Bronze Age burial has been found within.

Two days have past and I am still in awe and wonderment at the sights I saw at the weekend. I took the opportunity to book up to see the cave art within Church Hole Cave – and what an opportunity it turned out to be! For over half an hour I stood on the temporary viewing platform which had been erected to coincide with the cave art conference which took place nearby. I had an image of an animal, drawn by a human in the Palaeolithic, within six inches of my nose! My head was within inches of other animals and images which have yet to be fully interpreted! I feel privileged; no – I AM privileged – to have been allowed in to Church Hole Cave and to be shown the first prehistoric cave art to have been re-discovered in Britain.

This stone stands on the B4450, halfway between Churchill and Chipping Norton, in the northern roadside hedge. Usually, it’s difficult to find, being swamped by the hedge; however, on my latest visit the hedge had recently been cut, freeing the stone from its green prison. To my dismay, the stone had been trimmed, too, with loose flakes lying on the top.

14th September 2003:
On a trip down to the Cotswolds today, I visited the Longstone of Minchinhampton. As Gatcombe Lodge long barrow is only a couple of hundred yards away, I thought I might as well go and have a look at that, too.

Gatcombe Lodge long barrow happens to be on the Gatcombe Park estate (Princess Anne`s home). There`s a footpath which runs close to the barrow and I only meant to walk past and have a look. Anyway, I couldn`t resist. I went through a gate and onto the barrow. An estate worker spotted me as he went past in a Discovery; he blocked the entranceway and phoned the police.

A Land Rover duly arrived with two police officers, who did a full security check on me and my motor. They could see that I was an unlikely terrorist, with my sandals, shorts and Stonehenge Tshirt. When the all-clear came through, I was allowed to go with a rollocking.

The barrow itself is overgrown with stones from the chambers scattered over it.

On a recent visit to the Nympsfield long barrow, I noticed this one marked on the OS map, so decided to pay it a visit.

Shortly after turning onto the minor road leading to the village of Nympsfield from the B4066, I drove into a National Trust car park on the left which serves Woodchester Park (you have to pay to park here, although I didn’t notice until I was leaving).

The footpath from the car park leads you down into a wooded valley. Where the path turns to the right, along the valley, I carried straight on up the other side, through the trees and out onto the end of a gliding club’s airstrip.

The barrow lies at the western end of this grass airstrip. It’s been ploughed over, in the past, and is now no more than 2 metres high, with no visible stones.

Very little remains of this long barrow, which was nearly completely destroyed in the 19th century AD.

All that’s visibly left to see are two parallel slabs, set into the ground 6ins apart, and rising maybe 2ft above the ground, presumably part of a burial chamber.

They’re not easy to find, despite standing barely ten feet from Hayhedge Lane, a minor road running from the village of Bisley, one mile away.

I entered into a field on the northern side of the road through a metal gate and walked westward to the corner of the field where they stand in the undergrowth.

GPS: SO 91783 06122

I visited Avening in Sept 2003 in an attempt to find these burial chambers. After trespassing all over the site someone appeared and asked me what I was up to. On being told of my quest, they informed me that there’s been a lot of changes in the area and the burial chambers have gone.

Update:

I revisited this site on 30/5/04 and, I’m pleased to report, the burial chambers are still there, although they are very neglected and appear to be disappearing back into the earth, with only the tops of the chambers still visible.
This time, instead of approaching the site from the village, I parked my car in Avening and walked north along the B4014 until I came to a private, unmetalled road going south-east up a hillside. Within 100 yards I could see the chambers, behind barbed wire and set within a steep bank on the right-hand side of the track.

This double stone row seems so fragile and elusive.
With over 30 stones (a friend says he’s counted 44) averaging only 10” in height, I wonder how it has survived. Then I look around, at the wild Welsh scenery.
Very few people come here, now and for probably hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. It’s common land, the only resource being a few hardy sheep and the Afon Disgynfa, a mountain stream the waters of which flow over the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall, a mile further downstream. After climbing the path from the bottom of the waterfall up to the top and negotiating the boggy vegetation, the only way to find the row is to find the stone circle, first.
The avenue (as this is a double row leading to a stone circle, so it is classed as an avenue) starts nearly 30ft to the east of the circle, as a double row just over 6ft apart. You have to be standing over most of the stones to see them in the grass. After about 60ft, the rows widen out to about 12ft apart before veering slightly towards the south and continuing for another 100ft.

The remains of the Horslip long barrow can be seen from the track leading up from Avebury Trusloe to Windmill Hill, although there’s not much left to see. It has been ploughed out and is now just a barely discernible mound in an arable field within 100yards of the bridleway.