Monument record MDO4011 - Bowl barrow on Bell Hill, Ibberton

A bowl barrow situated on Bell Hill around 690 metres north east of Baker's Folly. In 1955 this monument was recorded as being around 10 metres in diameter and 0.6 metres high, with a slight hollow in the centre. The barrow has been damaged by animal activities and is now no longer identifiable on the surface. A nearby cross-ridge dyke appears to have been constructed to skirt around the northern side of the barrow. The barrow is visible as a ditched and banked earthwork on aerial photographs and current Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally recorded during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

ST 79670796. An unpublished bowl barrow with a hollow in the centre. 9 paces diameter by 2ft. high. <1>

ST 79690796. This mound has a diameter of 10 m, and is 0.6m high, with a slight hollow in the centre. It is very mutilated by small rabbit diggings etc. and is grass and bramble covered. There is no surrounding ditch. Very probably a bowl barrow, and its proximity to the cross-ridge dyke (ST 70 NE 7) which has been partly destroyed by tracks in this area, would render identification difficult except for the deviation of the dyke. This deviation occurs immediately north of the barrow and suggests that the dyke was so constructed as to avoid the mound. <2>

The cross dyke is visible as ditched and banked earthworks on aerial photographs and current Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally recorded during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project (NMR 2007; EA 2018).

National Monuments Record, 10-JAN-2007, NMR 24509/27 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21723.

Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1986, Dorset Barrow Survey, Papworth, M D J 13 January 1986 (Index). SDO134.

‘Visible as a low rise covered in blackberry, rough grass, hawthorn and gorse. There is a hollow in the mound’s centre, probably from past excavation. A path crosses the mound. Immediately to SE is a fence and beyond it a track. The land to N and W is rough grass colonised by low shrubs. The cross ridge dyke lies approx. 15m to N and survives as a prominent earthwork.’

Environment Agency, xx-xxx-2018, Environment Agency National Lidar Programme DTM 1M (Aerial Photograph). SDO21483.

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 115 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Quinnell, N V, Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Field Investigator's Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 16-AUG-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<3> DCMS, 1999, Scheduled Monument Notification 1999, 07-JUL-1999 (Scheduling record). SDO17351.

<4> Historic England, National Record of the Historic Environment, 201730 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 18 2026 2:13PM