formicaant

This bowl barrow sits on the floor of the river valley to the south west of Cold Kitchen hill. The barrow is 20 metres in diameter by 3.4 metres in height. The river Wylye flows past the site.

A rare saucer type round barrow to the east of the long barrow. These low barrows are very susceptible to any kind of agricultural activities especially ploughing and they don’t survive well.

These banks and ditches are linear boundaries on Biddcombe down and Whitepits down. The earthworks run for 2 km along the southern slopes of the hill on which Cold kitchen long barrow sits.
There is some speculation as to its purpose and it is possibly the political boundary between the Durotriges and the Belgae. They are not large enough to be of any military purpose, unlike Bokerley dyke which performs the same purpose in Hampshire. Also it is sited half way up a steep hill.
At its deepest it is 3 feet deep and 15 feet wide. There are gaps in the dyke where it crosses a valley and where modern tracks cross it.

This is a substantial monument, being 230 feet long, 72 feet wide and 12 feet in height. In addition the side ditches are still over 30 feet wide by 4 feet deep. It is situated just below the crest of Cold Kitchen hill facing north and overlooking the Wylye valley. The siting of the barrow is interesting as it sits in a fold of the hill and can,t be seen until you’re very close to it.
The barrow is orientated NW-SE and is rectangular in plan. It shows no signs of ever having been excavated which must be quite unusual.
It’s fairly easy to get to, but the hill is very steep and parking is limited in the village of Kingston Deverill.
It appears in an Anglo-Saxon charter as Lang Beorh and the name Cold Kitchen apparently alludes to a celtic name meaning hill of the wizard.

This bowl barrow sits on top of a hill rising out of the local heathland. It is about 1/2 a mile from Bull barrow and is 22 metres in diameter and about 1 1/2 metres in height.
The barrow is covered in vegetation but I did manage to walk up it. The centre of the barrow has a large rectangular depression in it. Any surrounding ditch which may have existed has now become infilled and cannot be seen.

Not to be confused with the other barrow on Bulbarrow hill near Rawlsbury hillfort, this heathland barrow is near the small village of Holt. It is in reasonable condition and is 16 metres in diameter and about 1 1/2 metres in height. Around the north west edge is what remains of a 2 metre wide ditch.
It appears to have been opened at some point as the top is flat and has a slight dip in the middle. Two flint scrapers have been found where erosion has affected the mound.

This is a medium sized bowl barrow, 22metres in diameter and 2 metres high. It is to the north of both Round Pound and the Wardstone barrow and lies just below the crest of the hill. It overlooks nearby barrow cemeteries on Winfrith heath rather than the southern hillforts near Lulworth. I assume it used to have bushes or shrubs on it, hence the name, but now it is clean of all vegetation and is in good condition. The farmer or land owner has surrounded the barrow with thick wooden posts in order to protect it from plough damage.

This barrow lies on the crest of a hill a few hundred metres from the coast. It’s a bit scruffy and covered in nettles and brambles. It is 15 metres in diameter and 1 1/2 metres in height.
It was excavated in1867 and a cremation in an upright late Bronze Age urn with a flat stone on top of it was found, but has since sadly been destroyed in a fire.

I don’t know a lot about this site, magic says the only dateable object found was a piece of Iron Age pottery. So I have to assume it’s from that time and is some sort of enclosure / animal pen, whatever it is it’s quite a substantial earthwork. The embankmet is built of chalk and turf and is 2 metres in height. The maximum distance between banks is 14 metres and encloses an area of about 0.6 of a hectare.
Close to several barrows, you can see Hambury Tout, Bindon Hill and Flowers Barrow from here. It’s on the coast path and can be walked to from a free National Trust car park at Ringstead.

Visited these and the nearby barrows and stone circle, and unless I’m particularly blind at the moment I couldn’t see the broken stones. I may just have missed them or have they been removed or taken away for repair?

I found these barrows while walking back from Tregeseal circle in the pouring rain. I had seen them marked on the map but that doesn’t mean you’ll find them so this was a bonus. I found 4 distinct barrows of varying sizes all to the north of the stone circle and east of the holed stones.
To the north of this site across the road are Chun Quoit and castle and Boswens Menhir.

These two barrows are north of the Goonhilly down and Dry tree sites. There are three here but I could only see two of them. Both were visible from the road past them and appear to be in pretty good condition.