formicaant

This is effectively a two part site of different eras. At the end of the promontory is a large Cyclopean wall and occupation dated to to the Bronze Age. This part of the site also has more modern military lookout posts.
The other part is an Iron Age Necropolis cave complex, these can be seen best from the end of the promontory, looking back west towards the land. There are 23 Hypogeums, it looks like you used to be able to get to them but various signs warn against it and apparently a rock fall has blocked the way.

There is scant information about this site, there are banks and ditches which enclose around an acre. It is triangular in shape and is described as a defensive enclosure. Dates are estimated to be from the Iron age to the Medieval period.

A scatterred group of barrows, including a group of three north of the military road from Warminster to Imber. The single one is actually on Summer down but this site name is already in use for a different place in Wiltshire so to avoid confusion I have added it here.
The group of 3 are listed as National Monument 10091 and the single as 10089. These were taken from a bus on one of the few days this area is open to the public.

Apologies for the poor photo but this barrow is not normally accessible for most of the year and stopping to take photos isn’t really an option. MAGIC says it’s 53m from East to West by 34m from North to South. It is surrounded by wooden posts to keep troops and vehicles off it.

This is just south of the road from Warminster to the lost village of Imber. It is either a twin barrow or two contiguous barrows and is part of a group of five following the ridge line. It’s national monument number is 10100, and is on the restricted firing range on Salisbury plain.

Finally got back to revisit these barrow, nearly 4 years later and what a pleasant surprise, the barrows are in much better nick. Full marks to what I assume is the farmer on whose fields these are for clearing all the rubbish and scrub from them. From just across the narrow road which leads to them can be seen the Lord’s Barrow on the ridge to the east.

This is very much a damaged and restored site, as the information board says much of it was used to build the road nearby. Looking at the base of the Taula it would appear to have been repaired with cement.
The Talaoit is damaged and fairly insubstantial, but not as knocked about as the houses would appear to be. All in this is well worth a visit for its peacefulness alone, when we went there we saw no-one else.

Two bowl barrows in dense undergrowth on private land to north east of the village of Tolpuddle. They don’t appear on MAGIC and don’t appear to be scheduled, they are listed as monument no. 456168 on Pastscape and Grinsell visited them and listed them in Dorset Barrows.
I’ve not seen them as they aren’t visible from either the A35 or the lesser road that goes to the village. Grinsell had them as being 37 feet in diameter and 4 feet in height and 54 by 5 1/2 respectively. The smaller one has damage from a military slit slit trench, presumably 2nd WW as this is a very strategic position above what used to be a main road (now bypassed).
Very close to these barrows an Iron age and Romano-British settlement was excavated during the building of the Puddletown/Tolpuddle bypass.

A small, low bowl barrow on Warren Heath, which is on the edge of the Higher Hyde nature reserve. Not the best photo but I had my brother with me and he wanted to see nature stuff – lizards and such so I didn’t get a chance to walk to it.

This is a single round barrow south of the group in Puddletown Forest which in cludes the Rain barrows. It is situated on farmland, north of Boswell’s Plantation, just off the heathland which used to stretch all the way to the New Forest. Just off a farm track, it is on private land and can be seen from the road and from the large round barrow south of the Rainbarrows. It appears to be in fair condition and of medium size.
The hedgerow goes over the middle of the barrow.

These are a nice pair of possible bell barrows and are well protected from farm vehicles with short wooden posts surrounding them. They are both roughly 20 yards across by 6 feet in height and the southern of the pair shows obvious signs of having been excavated. They are sited on a slight rise from which the nearby Bradford Barrow can just be seen in the distance.
Grinsell lists these as Pamphill 1,2,3,4 and 4a – 3,4,and 4a are no longer visible – he couldn’t find 4a and 3 and 4 were only a foot in height. These have probably fallen victim to the plough in the 50 or so years since Grinsell saw them.
These are close to Badbury Rings hillfort and there are well marked bridle ways to and from the barrows and the rings.

This is a very large bowl barrow, it is 41 yards in diameter and 20 feet in height, indeed there are telegraph poles close to it and they are roughly the same height. It sits on a ridge to the north of King Down and from it can be seen a pair of barrows on that down. Grinsell says it had a ditch, but I could not get close enough to see it.
Large as this is it is not easy to photograph as it is surrounded by hedges and small trees.
This is easy to get to and the footpaths are pretty flat. I parked near the entrance to Kingston Lacy house and followed the well marked footpaths.

This is a low bowl barrow adjacent to the A37 Dorchester to Yeovil road. The barrow itself not substantial – Grinsell gives its dimensions as 20 yards in diameter and 2 1/2 feet high, as measured by the RCHM in the 1950’s. It does not look to have changed much since then. He also describes it as a Cairn or stone heap, which is reasonably unusual in this part of the world.
The monument is as Rhiannon says on the reverse slope of an escarpment overlooking the small town of Maiden Newton, south in the valley below, the barrow faces north.
Whilst the barrow itself is fairly bog standard and possibly quite uninteresting, the area in which it stands is of national significance. The barrow is on private farmland, but the 80 odd acres surrounding it are within the Hog Cliff Hill National Nature Reserve (NNR). This is an area of proven antiquity as it has been extensively investgated in the past.
Excavated in 1959 by Phillip Rahtz (Ellison and Rahtz 1987) it was shown be late Bronze Age in origin, rather than Iron Age and is an early example of a permanent nucleated settlment. It comprised 3 round houses surrounded by a bank and ditch which enclosed an area of 13+ acres.
Its use carried on into the Iron Age and probably beyond and some of the earthworks of the field boundaries can still be seen in the NNR.
This is a rare survival or rarely looked at type of site and I think the date of the dig is of some significance – these sites don’t last long with modern deep ploughing techniques – and the low banks and post holes etc. are soon scoured away.
I have recently seen aerial photos of the neolithic complex at Hambledon hill, the first photo from 1924 shows extant banks ,ditches and pits etc, whilst a later shot from 1968 shows little more than crop marks, a site of early human activity destroyed by agriculture.

I visited this site on 16/09/2010, it was the only site I managed to get to on what was a family holiday after having just moved house. What a site this is, I was unprepared for both its size and complexity. I went at about three in the afternoon and only saw two other people, and as the hut was closed I couldn’t pay to get in!
It would appear that since Postman and Jane visited the site, that two of the Taulas have had their capstones restored to them.

A single round barrow several hundred yards west of Kinston Russell stone circle. It is aligned with the round barrow on Abbotsbury castle which is to the south.

This is one of a series of 7 cross ridge dykes which straddle the crests of the surrounding hills. It is situated south of the nearby promontory hillfort at Nettlecombe Tout and is west of the Dorsetshire Gap. The pictures were taken from the tiny hamlet of Folly in the valley below.

A cross ridge dyke on Windsbatch hill, just south of the South Dorset Ridgeway. This ditch and bank can be seen from the Gould’s Hill and Ridge Hill barrows which are to the north of it. It can be accessed via the Jubilee trail and is close to the village of Upwey.

I have long meant to see if this site is visible. It can be seen from the minor road which runs between Winterbourne Abbas and Portesham, I parked in a small layby on the west side of the road. The verge by the road had just been mowed and I walked along this, although this is a minor road it is very busy. The stones can be seen to the north, behind a water trough. They are quite small and I needed a long lens to get a photo of them.
This site is comparable to West Compton Down or Two Gates, which is several miles to the north near Eggardon Hill.

As Dickie says this barrow has been very seriously damaged in the past. Happily the current land owner seems to value it, as they have taken the time, effort and expense to fence it off. This is a very peaceful place to be, I had it completely to myself, and saw a young fox playing in the lane which leads to it.
From the barrow, to the south west Bokerley Dyke can be seen clearly, with its barrows and the parts of Grim’s Ditch associated with it.
I parked in a small layby a couple of hundred yards into the village and walked up the road into Long Barrow lane, it’s a flat walk and I spent about half an hour at the barrow. Worth a visit if you get the chance.

This is a surprisingly large structure on the Wiltshire / Dorset border. It’s 365metres long with a 40 metre gap where the modern road cuts through it.
This is part of a group of cross ridge dykes which straddle the Dorset / Wiltshire border, thought to be iron age in date, their purpose is uncertain. They appear to mark the extent of an area of land, but do not appear to be for defensive use as they are not long enough and only extend across the tops of hills.

At last I’ve managed to find this elusive long barrow, after about the 5th attempt. It is in dense beech woods north of the other long barrow nearby. This barrow is generally listed as Vernditch Case long barrow, the other is usually listed as “long barrow south west of Vernditch Chase”, but what’s in a name?
The barrow itself is quite slight and difficult to see, I’m happy that this is it, as it is in the right place. However there are various bits of Grim’s Ditch in this area and I have seen photo’s that purport to be the barrow which look more like the ditch, i.e. much too long and thin. This is one for completists (like me, I suppose) as it is small and has probably been ploughed in the past.

A pair of round barrows on the ridge of Limekiln Hill. The barrows are bowl type and are either side of the B3157 coast road. The northern one is the larger of the two and has some damage done to it by animals. I could not get to the southern barrow as it was surrounded by young bullocks and I bottled out, having been chased in the past.
These mounds are part of a scatter of barrows along this part of the coast, to the east are Tulks Hill and Puncknowle to the west. Five hundred metres to the south is the wonderfully named Labour-in-Vain farm.

A barrow cemetery comprising five bowl and one bell barrow on the west of Godlingston Heath. This is a curious cemetery, the like of which I’ve not seen before locally, it is in the shape of a crescent. The arc is roughly a 1/4 of a circle and looks like a small arena. The barrows overlook the north part of the heath and Poole harbour from the top of an inland cliff. The five bowl barrows make up the arc shape with the bell barrow just behind, almost touching them.
The barrows are covered in low heather at the moment and get larger and higher as they go from the first barrow – north west to the sixth barrow south east. The only barrow that is visible from the south is the bell barrow, from which can be see two of the barrows on Nine Barrow Down, to the south, I’m pretty sure the long barrow is one of them.
These barrows are not on the main part of the heath with the marked footpaths but the whole area is open access land and there was a path that could be followed. These are not marked in any way on the relevant O.S. maps and I only found out they existed while looking at something else on MAGIC, where they are marked and described.
On the way back, about 20 yards from the barrows I was lucky enough to find a piece of Bronze Age pottery laying next to the track. It looks like the local black burnished ware and is part of a rim.
All in all they are an unusual group in the context of Dorset barrows and are well worth a visit – look them up first on MAGIC and they are quite easy to find, if not this is a large heath with lots of lumps and bumps on it which aren’t ancient.

I finally decided to see what’s at the top of the hill. It looks impossibly steep to climb and it is from most directions. However if you park on the western side just above Hammiton farm only the last 20 yards or so are steep.
The views from the hill are panoramic. I could see at least four hillforts from the top, namely Eggardon to the north east, Chilcombe to the east, Abbotsbury castle to the south east and Pilsdon Pen to the north west.
Also to the south west is Golden Cap, Colmer’s Hill and Hardown Hill are to the west and I think I could see both Lambert’s Castle and Coneys Castle to the north west as well.
I’m not sure this is a hillfort in the sense of there being any defensive banks or ditches, of which I could see no evidence. Having said that I’m not sure these would be neccesary as this would be an ideal refuge without any obvious banks etc. It is easy to see any approach to the hill from any direction.
There are some curious looking banks and ditches below the main hill which could wel have been the site of a settlement.
Grinsell thought there was a low barrow on the hill, the only place I could see that could be a barrow is the site of an O.S. trig point. It is indistinct and would have been disturbed by the building of the trig point anyway. I suspect also that the site was used during WW2 as an observation post, there was some brick work up there and what looked like a small chimney stack in the field below the hill.

The barrow is on the north west side of Hammiton Hill which is to the south of Shipton Hill. It is about 25 metres across and 1 3/4 metres in height. It’s in good condition and is not part of an extended group or cemetery.

This is a large bowl barrow at the western end of Ballard Down, to the south is the small hamlet of Ulwell from which the barrow takes it’s name. It looks in pretty good condition, although there are signs of an excavation on the crown, the damage is not too bad. Some damage has been done to the eastern edge by the disturbance created by a stone obelisk. This is a curiosity, it was placed there to comemorate the coming of clean, fresh water to nearby Swanage, the reservoir is to the south of the barrow. The obelisk was originally in London, outside the Mansion House. It was removed from the barrow in 1941 so as not to be guide to german bombers, it was re-erected in 1952 by the army.
I approached the hill from the north, Studland side as it is much less steep than the southern Swanage side. I parked by a farm gate, it was obvious many people had parked here before me. The hill is pretty steep but Ballard Down itself levels out and is a nice place to see the surrounding sites, megalithic or otherwise.

These two bell barrows are in a valley bottom to the north of Ballard Down and are part of a group which includes the Fishing barrow which is to the est of it. The maps show another bowl type near these two but I couldn’t see it.
The barrows are very scruffy and covered in dead grass at this time of the year, in summer they are obscured with gorse and bracken.
These are very easy to visit as they are just north of a large layby and observation point with easy parking.

I have wanted to include this barrow for a long time but have never been able to actually see it. Thanks to our hard winter and late spring the undergrowth is low enough for me to take a photo of it. It is a bowl barrow in reasonable condition, some tree damage but no apparent excavation signs.
It lies in a valley and is just off a small road that leads to a farm, it appears to be part of a scattered group, to the west is at least one barrow on Whitcombe hill and to the east is Huck Barrow.

I posted these photos last year as “The Two Barrows” before Exmoor was split between Devon and Somerset. I have now deleted that seperate post. Anyway the barrows lie to the east of the nearby Five Barrows group, actually nine in number.
The barrows I photographed are on opposite sides of a small road, the northern one is a fairly large bowl barrow. The southern one was hard to take pictures of as it is low and indistinct.
There are another two barrows nearby, slightly to the north and according to how they look on MAGIC these appear to be the actual Two Barrows. In the way of these things sometimes it is not easy to say which barrows are which purely from map sources, I will visit here soon again as there are other things I want to see nearby.

I took the opportunity to visit this barrow while taking some photos of East Hill barrows. The maps and MAGIC etc show two, but I could only spot one of them. Some of the barrows in this extended group along the South Dorset Ridgeway are very slight and hard to see, I suspect that may be the case with the other barrow.
The visible barrow is quite a curious example as it seems to have been turned in to a water tank holder. This appears to have been done to it some time ago as grass has grown over the concrete lid.
The White Horse is 18th century and depicts king George the 3rd on horseback, he was responsible for making nearby Weymouth a fashionable resort and popularised sea bathing.

This is one of several dykes which run across the ridge of hills which the A35 now follows. This one is a few hundred yards east of Chilcombe Hill and from it can be seen Eggardon Hill to the north. Probably by coincidence it is directly in line with a modern milestone.
There are quite a few of these ditch and bank structures in Dorset and they are thought to be late bronze age to iron age in date. The purpose of them is unclear but is thought to be as some kind of division of land.

I’m not sure about this, it could be natural, although the name suggests not. Unfortunately Grinsell is no help as he never visited it for Somerset Barrows. If it is genuine then it is large and in good condition. It is the highest point for some distance around and gives its name to three small hamlets.

This is also known as the Isle of Athelney and is most famous as the refuge of King Alfred during the Danish invasion of the 9th century, where he burnt the cakes.
This would once have been a proper island, being as it is one of the few high points in the Somerset levels. The levels were drained and the local river Parrett diverted. The site is on private land and there is no public access to it, there is a large layby next to it with a very good information board in it.
The Iron Age part of the hill is at the western end and consists of a bank and ditch.

Another visit to this hillfort after 3 years, last time I came it was a grey day and I wasn’t happy with the photo’s. This is a huge site, not including the hillfort, it was in use for many hundreds of years. Firstly there is a very badly damaged bronze age barrow within the hillfort and the iron age monument itself. There are norman pillow mounds, it was used as a racecourse in the 18th and 19th centuries. There is evidence of a napoleonic signalling station and a fair was regularly held here.
I know none of the above is necessarily relevant to this website on the face of it but I think it illustrates the importance of this site in the local area. The nearby villages are tiny and scattered and this must have been a focal point for trade. The banks are very slight and doubtful as a defensive position. Also there are other properly defensible positions very close by, Pilsdon Pen and Coneys Castle are much more viable places to be when under attack.

I saw this site from the valley below while visiting the nearby Setta barrow and five barrow hill. From below it does not look very substantial, sadly I ran out of time so could not get up to it, good excuse for another trip to these parts.

Finally got around to taking some photos of the site, had to wait until winter as it’s obscured by undergrowth in summer. It is a slight hillfort and is best seen from the valley below, I have walked up it but didn’t today as it was far too muddy.

This is a destroyed site which once had four barrows on it. These were so slight in the 19th century as they weren’t robbed out like the rest of the local barrows. In addition to the barrows there is one of the most extensive urn fields in the country. The flat burial site site is comparable with the also destroyed Rimbury site near Weymouth, and is of the same middle bronze age date and cultural type.
The site was excavated prior to gravel extraction and building work in 1967 – 69 and yielded about 300 urns containing 180+ cremations.This is the largest urn field in the country yet to be excavated. A great deal of worked flint and a large amount of bronze age pottery were found during the dig.

Magic / O.S. show six barrows in this group, this is the only one visible from this point, which is at the top of Goulds hill looking south. Waddon hill is south of the main Ridgeway and is between Upwey and Portisham.
I have now returned a few days later, on the road south of Friar Waddon hill. Four more of the barrows are visible from the valley below. They are not easy to photograph as they are high up, I don’t think there is easy access to these barrows as although I can see a footpath up to them, parking is very difficult on the narrow lanes.

I fully intended to walk this site today, but as you can see from the photo taken at midday it was not a good day to be out and about. There are 10 bowl barrows spread across an upland heath area now surrounded by houses. On the next day it isn’t peeing down with rain I will visit these barrows and take some proper photos.

I have decided to update the field notes for this site as the last one I put up was inaccurate. There are in fact 8 barrows in this group. The road from Wareham to Bere Regis splits the cemetery in half. It is two groups of four and they are aligned from east to west in a line.
M.A.G.I.C says they were excavated by Shipp and Durden in 1844, the signs left by these amateur diggers are plain to see now.
These are all medium sized bowl barrows in reasonable condition. They overlook Poole harbour and the Purbeck hills to the south.

This is speculative at best, that the original stone circles existed is not really in doubt. Documentary evidence survives from several contemporary sources, two of whom wrote books in the 19th century. Both books were written by local women, Clara King-Warry and Elizabeth Pearce. Pearce wrote her memoir in 1805, before much of the major quarrying took place on this part of the island, she names one of the circles as being called The Frolic . King Warry wrote several books about a century later and sites the circles as having stood either side of Easton Lane ( now Easton road ), she says they were removed and due to the unwillingness of the local workmen were not destroyed but built into the walls along the lane. The sawmills name comes from the name of a now destroyed inn.
This brings us to the stones in the photos I took, they are in the right place and are much larger than any other stones I have seen built into old walls on the island. I have not seen all of the dry stone walling on Portland, there are miles of it, but these are unusual inclusions. Portland stone is and was expensive stuff and large pieces of it are not usually used in this way. Portlanders are a superstitious people, the word rabbit is still taboo, and I would not at all be surprised at the reluctance of workmen to destroy ancient stones .
The only other place where such stones exist is in another wall close to a site described by a visiting antiquarian called Fido Lunettes. Lunettes describes a place near the Portland young offenders institute, which was the original convict prison on the island. He visited the site in 1824, before the prison was built, he descibes an ancient British eartwork called Arun’s Green. He further describes some standing stones with a large flat stone on top which he calls a cromlech.
There can be little doubt that standing stones, circles, barrows etc did exist on this ancient island, but due to the quarrying and military activities in the 19th century much of it has been destroyed or moved or reused.

This is the site of a now destroyed round barrow, it is believed to been in existence prior to its removal by quarrying in the late 19th century. The site is now a nature reserve.

I have finally got round to visiting this site on foot. I have deleted my previous photos and comment as they weren’t much cop anyway.
As can be seen there isn’t much to see, the actual excavation being under the shelter of the small, low wooden building. Having said that this is a very important site, nationally as well as locally. Apart from the recently excavated Doghouse hill, this is one of the oldest settlement sites in Dorset.
Several hundred feet west of the site can be seen the well after which the site takes its name. The well is edged with high quality local stone and is held to have been in use since time out of mind. A narrow gully takes its outflow to the cliff where it flows in to the sea as a waterfall.

This is a promontory hillfort in the village of Milborne Wick in south Somerset. It sits on the south western end of Barrow Hill. The village surrounds the fort on three sides. In places the rampart stands up to 6 metres in height. It encloses an area of just over 19 acres.
Magic states that the main ramparts cross the hill at its northern neck and run down the eastern side. The western side and southern end are mostly natural hillslope, with some additional height added artificially. While no excavation has provided dating evidence, the form, shape and placing of this site are consisitent with an Iron Age date.
This not the most accesible hillfort around as it is bounded by housing and private farm land, there does not appear to be a footpath on or near it. Also it is not easy to photograph through various trees and bushes, I must see if there is a nearby hill from which it can be viewed with a long lens.

This group of three bowl barrows lay on a north facing hillslope to the south of the village of Winterbourne St Martin or Martinstown. The barrows are close to the buildings which are a dairy. The other barrows in the photo are further away on Ridge hill.

This is a very prominent hill, almost iconic in this part of Dorset. It can be seen from many places and the addition of the trees, during the first world war, makes it all the more visible.
Although the modern name is 19th century, after the reverend John Colmer the land owner. The original name was Sigismund’s Berg, which gives the name to the adjacent village of Symondsbury.
Cope thinks it the centre piece of a sacred river valley, the rivers Brit, Simene and Asker converge nearby.

This is an area of upland heath about a half mile from the Dorset coast, it is a single bowl barrow on a small hill. It overlooks Colmer’s hill to the north and lines up with the Thorncombe Beacon barrows to the south. From it can be seen Golden Cap and the barrow cemetery on Hardown Hill to the north west.

Whilst there is not much to see on the hill itself apart from a linear feature near the cliff edge, never the less it is at a point on the coast which is between other sites. Adjacent to it are the barrows on Thorncombe beacon, to the east and the settlement and barrows on Golden Cap to the west.

Four barrows on a hilltop on the west Dorset coast. They are in a row from north to south and appear to point towards Colmer’s hill. A fifth barrow is also in line with them on Eype Down about half a mile to the north.
The first of the barrows is the mound on which the beacon itself sits. The second is the largest at about 12 feet in height and 30 odd yards in diameter. The next two are less distinct, possibly plough damage has lowered the height and they are now less easy to see as barrows.
This is a very prominent point on the coast from which you can see a long stretch of the Dorset and Devon coasts. It also has the advantage of far views inland. Very close by are other ancient sites such as Golden Cap, Colmer’s Hill and the recently excavated Doghouse Hill – probably the oldest site of human habitation in Dorset.

This is an extensive set of square celtic fields on a south facing hill, south of the village of Sydling St Nicholas. These fields have never been ploughed and are a rare survival locally. They are only about a mile west of the large enclosure on Grimstone down. There were also settlements at nearby Shearplace hill and Smacam Down.