Monument record MDO2058 - Barrow on Friar Waddon Hill, Portesham

A Bronze Age Bowl barrow on the crest of Friar Waddon Hill, noted by field investigators as an extant earthwork and also visible as a low earthwork on aerial photographs.

A Bronze Age Bowl barrow on the crest of Friar Waddon Hill. (PDNHAS 1916; RCHME 1970)

One of a group of three barrows (MDO2058-9 & MDO24592) located on Friar Waddon Hill. A food vessel 5 1/2 inches high, now in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, may have come from one of these barrows, or those located further to the east (MDO60-3 & MDO2084-5). (Grinsell 1959)

'A'. SY 64008554. Bowl barrow, diameter 8.0m., height 0.5m., no visible ditch. Unlike all the other barrows on this ridge, which are on the top, it lies on a north-facing slope about 40 metres below ridge-top. (Barton 1980)

Also visible as a low earthwork on aerial photographs (Royal Air Force 1947; NMR 2005) measuring approximately 10 metres in diameter. This site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

Historic England, National Record of the Historic Environment, 452487 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Barton, J G, Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Field Investigator's Comments JGB, F1 JGB 11-APR-80 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

15-2-2005, NMR SY6485/7 (23796/4) (Aerial Photograph). SDO11931.

Royal Air Force, 17-1-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 1063-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11906.

Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1916, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club for 1916, 40-47 (Serial). SDO25.

Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows (Monograph). SDO132.

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 450 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(50) Bowl (?) (SY 68 NW; 64028554) on crest of Friar Waddon Hill. Diam. 20 ft., ht. 1¼ ft.'

Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey (Index). SDO12304.

Unlike all the other barrows on top of this ridge, which are on the top, this one lies on a N-facing slope about 40m below ridge top. Permanent pasture.

Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

Record last edited

Sep 10 2026 3:13PM