Monument record MDO5384 - Bulbarrow, Woolland

A bowl barrow near the summit of Bulbarrow Hill. In 1970 this monument was reported as being around 54 feet in diameter with a mound about 4 feet high. The centre of the mound is disturbed, probably by antiquarian investigation. Formerly a beacon, in 1625 the hundreds of Reland, Brownhull, Sturmister Newton and Buckland were obliged to find watchmen.

'Bul Barrow', a ditched bowl barrow, 18 paces diameter and 4ft high with a hollow centre. A sharpened bone of a deer 'from Bull Barrow' may equally refer to the Bull Barrow in Holt parish. <2>

As described in Authy 2 although gorse and bramble-covered. The top of the barrow is entirely scooped out and there is a spoil heap adjoining the mound on the north-west. <3>

The barrow called Bulbarrow in Woolland parish was formerly a beacon, and in 1625 the hundreds of Redlane, Brownshull, Sturminster Newton and Buckland were obliged to find watchmen. <4>

ST 77500574. Bulbarrow, bowl barrow, 54ft. diameter and 4ft high lies at about 870 ft above sea level. The centre of the mound has been dug. <5>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1902 (Map). SWX1540.

(ST 77500573) Bul Barrow (Tumulus) (NR)

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 160 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2.1> Wools, C, 1839, The Barrow Diggers. A dialogue in imitation of the Grave Diggers in Hamlet., 77 plate 5 No 16 (Monograph). SWX2974.

<3> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 15-AUG-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<4> Hutchins, J, 1863, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. Volume 2. 3rd edition, 419 (Monograph). SDO9443.

Shipp, E W

<5> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 317 (Monograph). SDO136.

‘A sharpened bone of deer ‘found in Bullbarrows’ (Barrow Diggers, 77) may be from (10), or it may come from Bull Barrow in Holt (see Dorset V). (10) Bulbarrow (77500574), bowl, lies at about 870 ft. above sea-level near the summit of the Chalk escarpment, here known as Bulbarrow Hill. The centre of the mound has been dug into. Diam. 54 ft., ht. 4 ft.’

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 201753 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 11 2024 11:35AM