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. A Bronze Age bowl barrow is visible as a hollow banked earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and current Environment Agency lidar imagery. The feature was digitally recorded during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

'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>

A Bronze Age bowl barrow is visible as a hollow banked earthwork on 1940s aerial photographs and current Environment Agency lidar imagery (RAF 1945; RAF 1947; EA 2018). The feature appears to comprise a roughly 15m in diameter mound with a hollowed out centre. A possible outer ditch 1.25m wide is also faintly discernable on the same aerial sources but the detail is not clear. The feature 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> 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 Rigg, J, Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Field Investigator's Comments JR, F1 JR 15-AUG-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<4> John Hutchins, edited by Shipp, W, and Hodson, J W, 1863, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. 3rd edition. Volume 2, 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> Historic England, National Record of the Historic Environment, 201753 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 16 2026 2:31PM