Monument record MDO718 - Long barrow on Smacam Down, Cerne Abbas

A mound interpreted as a probable long barrow. In 1952 this monument was described as an earthwork about 98 feet long with a ditch all round, the ditch cut into on the south by a later field boundary. The mound was around 54 feet wide at its widest point, and 5 feet high. The feature is visible on Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project.

(SY 65739939) Long Barrow (NR). (1)

SY 65729939. A long barrow, orientated north to south on Smacam Down, measured 98ft long by 40ft wide and 4.5ft high at the south end. A horseshoe-shaped ditch was said to have inturned at the south end although RCHM suggested that it had been filled-in by a field boundary at this point. There was an excavation hollow in the centre of the mound with the spoil dumped in the eastern-side ditch. (2)

A grass-covered long barrow, 30.0m long north to south and 16.0m wide with the higher north end being 1.7m high, although in view of mutilation it has no significant higher end. There is a surrounding ditch averaging 4.0m wide and 0.5m deep except at the south end where it has been obliterated by a lynchet. The excavation hollow mentioned in Authy 1 is as described. (3)

SY 657993. Cerne Abbas long barrow listed by Ashbee who adds that this type could be termed the U-ditch class, which are of medium size, and seem to be restricted to Dorset. (4)

For 25" Re-survey of long barrow, see SY 69 NE 11. (5)

No change.

Revised at 1:2500 on MSD. (6)

The feature is visible on Environment Agency lidar imagery and was digitally plotted during the Dorset Upper Cerne and Piddle Valleys AIM project. <11>

<1> VARIOUS, Antiquity, Antiquity 3 1929 280 (Serial). SDO17970.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 83-84 (Monograph). SDO97.

‘(33) SETTLEMENT AND BARROWS (Plate 106) on Smacam Down 1¼ m. S.W. of the church. … About 50 yards west of the enclosure is a mound, probably a long barrow (No. 138 in O.S. Map of Neolithic Wessex); it is 98 ft. long and its greatest width, towards the S. end, is 54 ft. The greatest height is 5 ft. and there is a ditch all round, but it has been partly destroyed on the S. by the later field boundary. The axis is nearly N. and S. …’

<4> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 03-FEB-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<5> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 77 (Monograph). SDO132.

‘Horseshoe-shaped ditch, in-turning at S., where it is open, but RCHM suggest (Dorset, i, 84) that it has here been filled in by field boundary. Dip in middle of mound through former opening, spoil having been dumped in eastern side-ditch. Antiquity, iii, 280.’

<6> Ashbee, P, 1970, The Earthen Long Barrow in Britain, Earthen Long Barrow in Britain 1970 15 161 (P Ashbee) (Monograph). SDO16712.

<7> Waggott, Thomas Pilling, Field Investigators comments TPW, F2 TPW 13-JAN-71 (Unpublished document). SDO17968.

<8> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 scale map, 1975 (Map). SDO17396.

(SY 65739939) Long Barrow (NR)

<9> Attrill, N J, Field Investigators Comments NJA, F3 NJA 11-DEC-80 (Unpublished document). SDO14743.

<10> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452847 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<11> Environment Agency, 16-NOV-2021, LIDAR Environment Agency DTM (Aerial Photograph). SDO18034.

Record last edited

Jan 20 2025 2:51PM