formicaant

Although listed as a long barrow this is actually one of fewer than 50 oval barrows known to exist and is therefore much more of a rarity. It is sited on the Purbeck hills north of the village of Church Knowle. Its in good condition and is about 30 metres long by 20 wide and nearly 3 metres in height. It has ditches on either side which I would have liked to have seen, unfortunately the field had about 30 bullocks in it and I wimped out, having been chased by them in the past. I will definitely be visiting this site again hopefully minus the cattle.

This is a single bowl shaped barrow despite it’s name. I think the name comes from the fact that it is perched on top of a small hill which looks like an extension of the barrow. This positioning would have much more obvious in the past, sadly the barrow is now in a plantation of hideous fir trees.
The barrow itself is in poor condition, trees grow on it but most of the damage has been caused by badgers burrowing in to it. Although it is near a footpath it’s not easy to get to through the thick undergrowth, I had to dig quite a lot of thorns out of my jacket and trousers and I could have lived without the stinging nettles.
It appears to be an outlier from the barrow cemetery on Black hill several hundred metres to the east. Also to the west two barrows are marked as being extant on Tolpuddle Ball, which at some stage I’ll try and visit.
To the north west is Wetherby castle which stands prominent on a hill rising out of the valley floor.

This large bowl barrow, paired with a smaller one, is to the west of Ackling dyke. On the crest of a hill, to the north is Oakley down and to the south is Wyke down barrow cemetery. This area is covered in barrows of all types including several long barrows. To the east of the barrow is the Dorset cursus, indeed on Bottlebush down is some of the remaining cursus bank.
Incidentally the Anglo – Saxon naming is quite rare in Dorset, the Saxons, it’s reckoned didn’t fully conquer the area until about 700c.e.
The word berende means plentiful or productive and may refer to the large size of the barrow. Beorh is the root of the modern word barrow.

I approached the hillfort from the north, passing close by Lanceborough, the massive bell barrow below Maiden Castle. I was hoping to see a long barrow which is shown on O.S and Magic, this now appears to have been completely ploughed out.
Once inside the hillfort I decided to look mainly at the neolithic origins of it. Still visible is the very long bank barrow or possible cursus feature which curves across the northern part of the interior for about 550 metres. It now shows as a low ridge, this area has been ploughed in the past. The original causewayed enclosure is now no longer visible on the ground and is thought to be overlaid by the first phase of the hillfort.
Also visible in the south west corner is a low bronze age bowl barrow.
From the southern rampart I counted twelve round barrows on the ridge of hills a few miles to the south, one of these is a unique hybrid disc/bowl barrow.

This barrow is only really visible from Shapwick churchyard. It is situated on a flood plain next to the river Stour, Badbury rings is about two miles to the north of this site.
The barrow is relatively well known for the engraving of its excavation in 1838. The person responsible for the dig was the Rev. Charles Wools, the then curate of Sturminster Marshall. Wools wrote that “the examination of the Barrow was continued for Eight Days with an indomitable spirit of perseverance.” Work had to stop when they dug below the level of the river and the trench began to flood. A possible Bronze age cremation burial was found.
Wools wrote up the dig in a book called “The Barrow Diggers; a Dialogue in Imitation of the Grave Diggers in Hamlet” a mixture of farce and serious scholarship.

All I can see in this area is one low bowl barrow covered in brambles and scrub. What looks like ditch in the photo is a rut in the track which leads to a gateway into a field. There should be another three barrows in the vicinity, I suspect they’re over a slight rise in the field. As this is private farmland with sheep grazing I didn’t go further into the fields to look for them.

This is a truly huge earth work. It is higher than some hillfort ramparts I’ve seen and the northern ditch is still at least a metre deep. The southern ditch is less evident and may be the footpath itself.
There is a bowl type barrow with a still visible outer ditch about two hundred yards east of the long barrow.

This long barrow is a couple of hundred yards north west of Buzbury rings. It’s right next to a footpath, I parked in the golf club car park, nobody seemed to mind.
The barrow is in a fenced off area and apart from being rather overgrown appears to be in good condition, with ditches on both sides. It is orientated on a northwest / southeast axis as is the nearby Race down long barrow. It is 125 feet long, 80 feet wide and 6 1/2 feet high.

This long barrow is on M.O.D. land, part of Blandford camp, but public footpaths cross the site so access is allowed. I got there via Tarrant Monkton, drive up a dead end track with a turning circle at its end, park and follow the footpath.
The barrow is well worth the effort, its in great condition, this has been an army camp for two hundred years, so agriculture hasn’t harmed it. It has a very wide base, I couldn’t get close enough to see any side ditches.

This once great long barrow is now very low and difficult to see, I assume it’s been ploughed for many years. The current farmer seems to be trying to protect it’s whereabouts by placing a series of marker poles around it, but sadly the damage has been done.
Close by are several round barrows, two of which I have included, a third is just visible in a dense hedge.
One major bonus on this visit to what could have been a disappointing site was the finding of a beautifully crafted discoid flint scraper.It is 4.5cm wide and 5.5cm long with one very sharp edge and a blunt end.

This long barrow is all but invisible at the moment, being as it is in woodland, and heavily covered in undergrowth. I could make it out with some difficulty, and it is surprisingly substsantial. It is about 150 feet long and 40 feet wide, at the moment the ditches are too full of nettles and brambles to see well, but they are still in existance.
I will definitely re-visit this site in the winter when it will be much easier to see and photograph.

Another visit to this site this time with a bit more information on the barrow itself. Deverel barrow is not as I thought last time the large, low round barrow easily visible from the footpath. It is in fact a clump of trees to the west of it with a circular flint wall surrounding what is left of the barrow.
Apologies to juamei, who I should never have doubted, the remains of the barrow is covered in sarsens. I counted 24, more could be hidden in the undergrowth. Most of the stones are about 18 inches across, the biggest is about 3 feet long and 2 feet high.
A group of the stones lay in a circle in the centre of the site, while the largest stone, which looks to be part of a cist is at the northwest corner of the barrow.
Incidently the information which lead to the correct site came from Peter Stanier’s excellent book Dorset’s Archaeology.

This group of barrows sit on top of a hill on heathland south west of the village of Bere Regis. From it can be seen the nearby hillfort of Woodbury Castle to the east. Magic show nine barows on this site, on this visit I could only see two. The more westerly of them was a low bowl covered in bracken.
The most curious was a low round shape with a large sarsen on top of it. I haven’t seen this listed anywhere else, this stone is not local, this is heathland with sand and gravel pits on it. Also it’s on top of a hill, so someone had to lug it up here. I’m really not sure if this is ancient or not, caution is needed and more information/research is necessary to find out if this stone is modern or a genuine megalith. I have seen this stone refered to as the “Devil’s stone” and it was reputed to have been 11 feet in height in the past.

Two bowl barrows to the north of the village of Worth Matravers. The more northerly of the two is a medium sized bowl shape in the middle of a field. It is in good condition and has a small wind bent blackthorn tree growing out of its north east side. The smaller of the two is to the south west and is low and does not appear to be in very good nick, possibly plough damage?

This pair of round barrows just south of a byway which runs along the ridge of a hill above Pallington heath. The western barrow has a large cleft in its top and the foot path runs over it. The smaller east barrow is low and at this time of the year covered in gorse and heather, making it hard to spot or photograph.
There are more barrows along this hill, the heavy foliage and many trees make them hard to spot, I will return in the winter for another look.

This round barrow is on the Purbeck golf course (hole number 7) but is on a public bridleway which also leads to the Agglestone and the Puckstone. It is a medium sized bell type with a flat top in reasonable condition.

This is not a double bank as I put in my miscellaneous entry, but a large single rampart with a deep ditch on its east side. The rampart is about twenty feet in height and at its deepest the ditch is ten feet deep. It is about 250 yards long and is to the west of a complex of cross dykes and ancient sunken trackways. To the northeast Rawlesbury castle can be seen and views across the landscape must stretch to many tens of miles.
I wanted to visit the Dorsetshire gap which is just below to the east, but chickened out when I saw the field leading to it was full of young steers. This will have to wait for another day.

There is no sign of the cursus at this point, despite the markings on O.S. maps. I agree with treehouse that the long barrow here looks like one continuous barrow with a gap in it. It appears very much like Long Bredy bank barrow, the gap being at a similar place, i.e about a third of the length from the northern end, where the trees end.It cannot be much shorter in length. What the difference between a long barrow and a bank barrow I have yet to see satisfactorily explained.

Another visit to this varied site which is still the border between Hampshire and Dorset. This time I was interested in the southern end around Blagdon hill and the junction with Grim’s ditch. At this point there are two pairs of round barrows either side of the dyke.
It is here that Bokerley is at its most impressive, the bank and ditch are at their highest and deepest at this place. This would be a major civil engineering feat now and must have taken huge effort in pre-history. In length it is the equivalent of several large hillforts. It enabled the romanised tribe of Dorset to remain largely untouched by the post roman saxon invaders until about 700 c.e.

This is an interesting site as it’s at a junction of Bokerley dyke and Grim’s ditch. The barrows are on a show jumping ring and are in very nice condition, one is large and the other is a tiny round barrow, right next to the ditch.
At this point Grim’s ditch runs into Dorset from Hampshire, going straight through Bokerley dyke.

This is a really nice pear shaped long barrow. It is to the south of the eastern terminal of the great Dorset Cursus. It is to the west of Bokerley dyke and is oriented north/south.

These round barrows are to the east of Bokerley dyke, three are in a group next to part of Grim’s ditch. The three graduate in size with the largest south and the smallest north. I saw another single bowl barrow at the northern edge of the down, there are more on the map, but I didn’t see them this time.

This is a substantial barrow, which is almost hidden in the undergrowth of a small copse, I walked past it twice with a map in my hand. It is on an east to west axis and is about 60 feet long (actually 58 metres as I have since discovered) and 10 – 12 feet high. It’s near neighbour at Chettle house is a better bet to visit, you can see it for a start. The survival of this barrow between two heavily ploughed fields must be down to it’s large size.

Finally I have found the time to visit this Devon hillfort. It’s a bit odd in it’s design as it seems to be split into two parts. The northern two thirds is a conventional enclosure, i.e. ramparts and ditches surrounding a large open interior on the ridge of a hill. The unusual part is the southern third which runs down the western facing slope of the hill, the east rampart runs along the crest of the hill and turns down the hill.
Another curious feature is at the north end and appears to be two large mounds, a bit like long barrows, which are separate from the main ditches and banks. Unfortunately they were so covered in gorse and bracken they could not be properly investigated, this gives me the excuse to go back in the winter for another look.

I really like this interesting little hillfort, I decided to visit it again because it looked similar in size and shape to Mistleberry fort which I had been to yesterday. This is in good condition and complete, unlike Mistleberry which is really knocked about and I believe incomplete.
The southern entrance is a great feature and I have included two photos of it from this visit.
Since Pure joy visited, this is now well sign posted from all directions, well done Devon council, I wish Dorset would do the same.

A small round univallate hillfort in woodland to the north of Sixpenny Handley. This is little known and I suspect little visited, it’s in dense deciduous woodland. The tree roots are damaging the banks and a large amount of badger setts aren’t helping either.
This fort is only about three quarters complete and appears to be unfinished originally. The missing ditch and rampart is mostly on the west side. On this side the ditch can be seen as a series of round pits, lessening in depth as they move south. It looks like the spoil from these holes would have been thrown up to make the rampart, which peters out at this point also. This looks like Ladle hill in Hampshire but only in it’s partial incompleteness on the west side.
Although quite remote it is easy to visit as it is next to an R.S.P.B. nature reserve with a good car park and is well served with footpaths. There are many other sites of interest very close to this site.

This is a large long barrow in the small village of Chettle. It is to the south east of another long barrow which O.S. calls Chettle long barrow.
This one is about a hundred metres long and about 3 – 4 metres high. It looks to be in good condition, but once on top of it’s northern end there is a large hole, which appears to be damage done in an old excavation. I will visit the other one in the near future, I ran out of time today.

A set of three round barrows, the first of which is about 200 yards to the east of Abbotsbury castle. The western most is in poor condition and has been dug into, it is next to a second world war royal observer corp bunker. The middle one of the group is a nice medium sized bowl barrow overlooking St Catherine’s chapel and the fleet lagoon behind Chesil beach. The third, most easterly is similar to the central one and is about a quarter of a mile from the White hill barrow cemetery to the east.

A small, low, rather scruffy looking bowl barrow looking out over the channel. It has been badly excavated, at least once in the past. It is on national trust land near the village of Burton Bradstock.

A large low bowl barrow on the top of a 90 metre hill. Maiden castle is a mile to the west and in plain sight. The barrow is covered with trees and has two small round barrows either side of it.

A low lying, mainly univallate hillfort at a fork in the roads from Shaftesbury to the villages of Donhead St Mary and Semley. It appears to be on private property as no footpaths are shown on O.S. maps. At some points it appears to have an outer bank with an inner ditch enclosing a further bank inside. The outer rampart is tree lined and there were sheep within the ramparts. The only way to see it is to pull in to small farm entrances and look through gaps in the hedge.

This is an unspoilt univallate hillfort above the chalk cut first world war military badges, south of the village of Fovant. It is a simple circular enclosure consisting of a single outer ditch and inner rampart. The interior is an uncut flower meadow full of ground nesting birds.
There are long distance all round views and on the day I visited I was completely alone. It looks like quite a steep climb up to it, but the footpath crosses the hill at 45 degrees and is a gentle climb. Well worth a visit for it’s simplicity and the views of the surrounding country side.

This is a bit of a disapointment to visit, as the major northern pair of ditches and banks are fenced off on private property. Also it’s heavily wooded. However it is of significance in terms of it’s location on a prominence above a river, this is unusual in Dorset. It consists of two sets of ramparts and ditches on the north and west sides, the southern edge has only a small bank as the drop to the river Stour is very steep at this point. The interior of the hillfort now houses various buildings owned the girl guides, and used as a campsite.

Although not as impressive or large as the nearby bank barrow on St. Martin’s down to the west, a pair of banks so close to each other is a rarity. The eastern most lies at the head of a small north facing valley and is orientated west/east parallel to the ridge of the hill. It shows itself as a low bank with a ditch either side of it.
The more westerly of the two is at a slight angle to the ridge and is much more visible, standing about two metres at it’s highest point, it too has a ditch on both sides of it.
Perhaps the most interesting barrow on the site is to the west of the banks. It is a medium sized bowl barrow with a large sarsen stone on top of it. The stone is a concretion of pebbles very much like the stones which make up the Hellstone cromlech a few miles to the south of this site.
There are various other barrows to the west and east of this site and it is of course directly north of the poor lot barrows.

This is a very important site in Dorset, being as it is a complete set of earthworks consisting of a farmstead and celtic field system. The most distinctive part of the site is a round enclosure not unlike a large disc barrow in form. This consists of a single bank and ditch. There is an entrance with a sunken trackway with a bank either side of it leading into the circular enclosure not unlike “banjo” type enclosures seen on Salisbury plain and elsewhere. These features are almost always referred to as farms, they often have excavated signs of a round house and other structures within their interiors.
The rest of the site is criss-crossed by the low banks of square shaped celtic fields. Also there are four deep depressions at various points around the site which appear to be ponds, indeed the most prominent appears to have a double ditched channel leading into it. This particular “pond” also has a bank at it’s lowest point.
At a place south of the circular feature is much larger bank and ditch than those marking the field edges, being about two metres in height.

Frustratingly this large hillfort south of Eggardon hill is surrounded by foot paths and open access land but very little of it can be seen without going on to private land.
What can be seen is the southern outer rampart and two barrows to the west, on the hillslope of the valley which the hillfort runs down. The bank which can be seen looks in good condition and at this point is about two and a half metres in height.
The nearby round barrows are low in height and the more southerly is smaller in size than the northern one. Their condition gives the appearance of having been ploughed or dug into at some time. One of these barrows according to L.V.Grinsell has a five foot long sarsen stone on it’s top, although I haven’t seen it personally I have seen a recent photo of it still in situ.
This site is well worth a visit for the views of the surrounding hills and the nearby coast. To the north is Eggardon and to the south Abbotsbury castle and to the west is Shipton hill.

I’m not quite sure what the difference is between the hillfort and this site as they appear to be one and the same to me, but it is a large enclosure / fort with multiple banks and ditches. Although it is on a high hill it is not on the crown, it is on a slight slope into the valley.
This may well be secondary to nearby Chilcombe which is about a mile to the east of this site.

At last I have managed to visit this small round Somerset hillfort. Access is very easy via foot paths from Dunster but it is six hundred feet up and is a pretty stiff climb, the views from the fort are well worth the effort.
It has low ramparts made up of small pieces of local stone piled up into banks. I doubt it is as high as it used to be as it appears to be very disturbed in places. No doubt it has been used as a quarry by local people. For most of the circumference there are two banks and a ditch. The interior covers three and a half acres and evidence of occupation has been found.

These two long barrows are about a hundred yards apart. They are in good condition and are large in size. Slightly to the north of the eastern most barrow is a small low round barrow. Although it can be seen, the nearby settlement site is very overgrown at the moment and probably needs to be seen in winter.

This is a very large long barrow sited a few hundred yards north of Bincombe bumps. It is behind a dry stone wall and is in excellent condition, with no signs of excavation or ploughing. It is not easy to photograph at this time of the year due to the crops in the surrounding fields, and the fact that is behind a dry stone wall.

This long barrow is in nice condition and is about two hundred yards from the nearby bank barrow. It’s orientation is roughly west to east and is at right angles to the bank barrow. About twenty yards away to the east is a low disc like barrow with a ditch and a slight, possibly ploughed out bank. This could be a rare saucer type.

This is huge and as Juamei says it cannot be photographed along it’s full length as it runs down the hill. At it’s highest points it is about twelve feet high, the gap about a third away from the north end is about six feet in height.
Although the drawing on the O.S. map shows it to be similar in length to the Bincombe bank barrow it is at least a third longer.
Both sides of the barrow, which is orientated roughly north/south has pronounced ditches either side of it. These ditches are up to two feet deep and run along it’s entire length.
Also within the same field and adjacent to it are three low round barrows and one medium sized bowl barrow which is very close to the bank at it’s south eastern end.
To the north of the site, across the very busy A35 are two large bowl barrows, both of which show signs of past excavation.

This single bowl barrow sits on the ridge of a hill. This is the same range of hills on which the Five Marys sit and is about half a mile to the west of of them. It is next to a small, narrow road and appears to have been damaged by traffic, large farm vehicles mainly use this road. Whilst not inherently interesting as an individual barrow, its prominent position and name do hint at the significance it may have once had.

This is a set of three bowl barrows on the national trust site of Tulk’s hill. This is to the west of Abbottsbury Castle and is above the Chesil beach. The most westerly barrow is low in height with a wide base. The middle of the three has a large gouge taken out of it’s summit, signs of past excavation. The most easterly of the group is at the highest point on the hill and is the best in terms of preservation. It is the tallest in the group and has no obvious signs of damage. Between the second and third mounds there are signs of old ditches , a platform and a bank. From the top of the hill the hillfort can be clearly seen. The views from this site are panoramic and a 360 degree view of the local countryside can go for many miles on a clear day.
On the other side of the road is another barrow and something described as a mound on the o.s. map I will try to photograph these, but the road here is very busy and it was not possible on this visit.
The best place to park and approach these barrows is to park in the national trust car park marked Lime Kiln hill, this is adjacent to Tulk’s hill which is about a quarter of a mile to the east.

Another stunning Cornish cliff castle, which is slightly north of another probable fortification at Cape Cornwall. There are the remains of a triple ditch defence line. Also a very well defined stone entrance. It doesn’t enclose a large area and would have been easy to defend and very hard to attack.

This must be the most westerly fortification in mainland Britain, lands end is only about a quarter of a mile away to the south. There is a definite entrance to the fort in stone. There is the vestige of a stone wall, I suspect it’s been robbed for other purposes.
The approaches to the fort appear to have been cleared of large boulders and the ditch can still be plainly seen. This is the oldest clif fort in Cornwall, dating from about 500 b.c.e. it has been excavated and nearby field systems are reckoned to be associated with the fort.

All the photos of the circle after the fire made me quite worried about the possible state of these stones. Thankfully all seems to be well, indeed any signs of there having been a fire are gone. There don’t seem to be any cracks in the stones nor does there seem to be any shifting of them.
Yet another fabulous Cornish setting, fairly easy to get to, but remote enough not to be a casual place to visit.
Carn Kenidjack stands on the hill to the north of the site and the Scilly islands can be seen to the south west on a clear day, which it was when I was there.

This is a stunning place for the views alone on a beautiful sunny day in June, I’m not sure how I would feel about being here in a howling gale in mid winter though. The perfect place to defend, the cliffs either side of the narrowest point are at least 100 feet in height. It’s a bit hard to see but there are the remains of walls and at least one entrance.
It’s name in the Cornish language is Ynyal which means desolate.

This is an ancient settlement site with the remains of two burial mounds at it’s highest point. The more southerly of these has a cist, square in shape still in situ and appears to have kerb stones around it’s edge. The more northerly mound is very sparse, only a few stones remain.
Also at the summit of the hill, next to the mounds is what appears to be a well or spring similar to that found in the interior of Chun Castle.
The information board says that there are field boundaries and hut circles which can be seen in the winter when the foliage has died back.
St Michael’s Mount can be clearly seen from this hilltop site and the small hillfort of Caer Bran is visible on the adjacent southern hill.

This stands in the middle of a field which had cattle in it when I visited it. As it stands at seven feet in height it’s probably too tall to be a lately erected rubbing post, anyway I’ve seen cows scratching themselves on the Men Scryfa and no one seems to doubt it’s age, well some do, but I don’t.