Monument record MDO711 - Barrow on Giant Hill, Cerne Abbas

Bronze Age bowl barrow on Giant Hill, recorded in 1952 as being about 35 feet in diameter and four feet high. The feature is visible as earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

A bowl barrow, 11 paces in diameter and 2 ft high. <1-2>

A gorse-covered bowl barrow, 9.2m N-S by 10.2m transversely and up to 1.1m. high. A recent rectangular hole 0.6m x 0.4m x 0.4m deep, shows a layer of flint fragments 0.2m deep apparently capping the barrow. There is no visible ditch. Revised at 1:2500 on MSD. <3>

The feature is visible as earthworks on 1940s aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar imagery. The lidar imagery indicates the presence of an outer ditch approximately 1m wide. The barrow mound is approximately 9m or so in diameter. The feature was digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project. <5, 6>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 82 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(30) Bank and Barrow about 200 yards N. of (29). ... The bowl barrow, immediately to the S. of the bank, is about 35 ft. in diam. and 4 ft. high.’

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 97 (Monograph). SDO132.

<3> Barrett, G, Various, Field Investigators Comments GB, F1 GB 06-JUL-77 (Unpublished document). SDO17369.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199007 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<5> Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 FS 2375 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20736.

<6> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

Record last edited

Jan 20 2025 3:16PM