Monument record MDO5381 - Cross dyke near Bulbarrow Hill, Woolland

A cross dyke running across a steep-sided spur. The dyke is around 150 metres long, and consists of a bank and ditch. The cross dyke is visible as banked and ditched earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and current Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally recorded during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

ST 77350607 - 77490603. A cross-dyke probably related to Rawlsbury Camp - Iron Age hillfort runs west north west - east south east across a steep sided spur sloping down to the north and broadening above Woolland village. The dyke, which faces south is about 160 yds long with a bank 30ft across and about 3ft. high; the ditch is 21ft wide and 1ft deep. To the west it ends immediately above, or has been cut by, a hollow way, now the modern road. On the eastern extremity the dyke drops right down the spur side.

'Celtic' fields (see below) lie immediately to the north west. Isolated and disturbed 'Celtic' fields lay north west of the cross-ridge dyke but there is no direct relationship between them. <1>

The cross dyke is visible as banked and ditched earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and current Environment Agency lidar imagery (RAF 1945; RAF 1947; EA 2018). The feature runs in a northwest to southeast direction downslope and a short section continues beyond a former hollow way, now the main road, into an area of later prehistoric fields to the northwest (see MDO50561). The visible extent of the feature is a little under 175m in length. It was digitally recorded during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 FS 2175 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21717.

Royal Air Force, 27-MAR-1945, RAF/106G/LA200 FP 1067 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21690.

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

<1> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 316, 339 (Monograph). SDO136.

'(7) Cross-dyke (77350607-77490603), runs W.N.W.-E.S.E. at about 700 ft. O.D. across a steep-sided spur that slopes down to the N. and broadens above the present village. The dyke, which faces S. up a sharp rise, is about 160 yds. long. The bank is 30 ft. across and about 3 ft. high; the ditch is 21 ft. wide and 1 ft. deep. To the W. it ends immediately above, or has been cut by, a hollow-way, now the modern road descending the flank of the spur; to the E., diminishing in size, the dyke drops right down the spur side. There are no original gaps. 'Celtic' fields (Group (54), p.399) lie immediately to the N.W.'

<1.1> Royal Air Force, 17-JAN-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1934 2175, 2175-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO16704.

<2> Historic England, National Record of the Historic Environment, 201782 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 17 2026 12:10PM