formicaant

This large bowl barrow is now completely surrounded by a modern housing estate. It is in relatively poor condition and is covered in large pine and cedar trees, it is surrounded by rhoddodendron bushes on its southern and eastern sides. This is probably one of the most accessible barrows anywhere.

There are three bell barrows and two bowl barrows on this rise on Lulworth heath. Two of the bell barrows seem to be in quite good condition and of medium size. The smaller of the three is hard to see from the road, which is the only way to see them. I could not see the bowl barrows at all. These barrows are on an M.O.D firing range. There are many barrows on these ranges, most of which can’t be seen or accessed, on this visit I could hear automatic gunfire close by.

Two unusual large disc type conjoined barrows. These are a rarity anywhere, but espescially in the New Forest. They sit atop a low plateau on the north west side of Setley plain. The northern is the smaller of the two and is overlapped by the larger southern barrow. They are of a similar size to the disc barrows on Oakley Down in Dorset. These barrows have larger mounds in the centre than most disc barrows, M.A.G.I.C. calls them “fancy barrows”. There is a single example south of the pair.

A rare type of round barrow. According to L.V.Grinsell; ” 93 feet overall diameter. On OWERMOIGNE boundary. The central mound is surrounded by a narrow berm, bank, and outer ditch. The bank and outer ditch are more massive than with the normal tree-clump circle, and may be ancient because the road, which follows the parish boundary, cuts through them, and is presumably later. The barrow is covered with firs.”
Information taken from Dorset Barrows 1959 P.D.N.H.A.S.
This describes accurately what can be seen today, the plastic portaloo is there for some road works a few feet away!

This visit I had time to have a proper look at this site. The feature you see when you first get here is an impressively big pair of banks and ditches, known as the double dykes. These are the main defensive feature for the settlement. They run north to south and cut across the narrowest point here.
Behind the banks is a field called Barn field in which there is a large bowl barrow in pretty good condition.
The next feature is Warren hill which is 90 metres in height and has steep sea cliffs on one side. It is a steep climb all the way round this hill, and it is an easily defensible position. On the hill there are several round barrows, the most easy to see was a low bowl type, gorse covered another 2 low ones.

A medium sized hillfort just inside the New Forest national park. Its in reasonable condition for the most part although it is cut through by a track leading to houses.
This is a univallte hillfort enclosing five acres. The bank is at its highest on the eastern side, as the west side slopes steeply away.

A large bowl barrow on heathland on the edge of the New Forest. This is in good condition with a complete outer bank and ditch. It has a flattish top and appears to have been excavated at some point. Its scheduled monument number is 20293.
The barrow is 25 metres in diameter and just over 2 metres high, the surrounding ditch is nearly 2 metres wide.
About three hundred metres to the west is a small bowl barrow. It is on OS maps, but not marked as a scheduled monument on M.A.G.I.C.

There are 7 barrows in this group which is to the north of Sheep down long barrow and south of the Big wood group. The three largest are in the centre and include a rare double bowl barrow with a figure of eight ditch. The cemetary straddles the road to Weymouth and is part of the south Dorset ridgeway group of barrows.

There appear to be about seven barrows in this group according to O.S. / Dorset Barrows / MAGIC. The largest and most prominent is just south of the old roman road to Exeter. It is on a ridge to the north west of Clandon barrow which is fully visible from it. The Dorset ridgeway is to the south of this group and a lot of the barrows on the ridge are visible.
There are four other similar sized barrows in this group, most are covered with trees. One of them is all but obscured. The cleanest one has recently been cleared of trees and has a large excavation cleft in its summit.
One of the group is all but ploughed out and another, to the south of the road is marked as destroyed on all the maps I’ve seen.
I also found two pieces of worked flint on the field margin of this site, one of which was a late neolithic / early bronze age end scraper.