Barrow - stepped barrow

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on the summit of a natural hillock in grassland with extensive views of the surrounding area. A medieval roadway annotated as 'Bohereenamarve' runs past the monument 20m to the W, Templecross church (WM011-051----) and graveyard (WM011-051001-) 600m to NE. A small circular-shaped mound that appears to have been landscaped in the post-1700 period when a curving terrace leading to the top was built. The mound is enclosed by a wide berm with traces of a slight bank and narrow deep fosse which seems to have ben re-cut in the post-1700 period possibly when the monument was enclosed by a field boundary. A causewayed entrance feature at N appears to be a post-1700 feature. A spiral step pathway has been cut into the mound from NNE, curving around to the top of the mound. The top of the mound was used as a trigonometrical station by the OS marking the spot height of 277ft. The landscaping of the monument and the deepening of the fosse may have been related to landscaping carried out by the OS when placing their trig. station on top of the mound. The stepped-barrow stands in the centre of a large circular enclosure (approx. diam. 33m) which appears to date from the post-1700 period when the monument was enclosed by a circular field boundary. The larger circular enclosure is clearly visible on aerial photograph taken in 1969 (CUCAP AYR008). The monument could be interpreted as a prehistoric bell-barrow or stepped-barrow which was either landscaped as an ornamental mound or modified by the Ordnance Survey in the 19th century when a trig station was placed on top of the mound.

See attached profile of monument surveyed and drawn by the ASI.

Compiled by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 18 August 2017

References

CUCAP - Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photographs. Unit for Landscape Modelling, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge. See:https://www.cambridgeairphotos.com