Scheduled Monument: Three round barrows at E end of Ballard's Down (DO487)

This monument includes a group of three round barrows forming a triangular arrangment, situated on Ballard Down. The two southern examples are bowl barrows and each has a mound composed of earth, flint and chalk. The south western mound, which is 12 m in diameter and about 0.65 m high, was partially excavated by J H Austen in 1857. The remains of a primary crouched inhumation and a deer antler close to the skull were found in a chalk cut grave 1.5 m deep. A secondary extended inhumation of a juvenile, with the head oriented towards the west, was also identified 0.6 m below the surface of the barrow mound. The south eastern mound, which has dimensions of 15 m in diameter and about 1 m in height, was also partially excavated by Austen in 1857. The remains of a primary inhumatiuon and a secondary infant inhumation associated with animal bones and an urn were identified. The upper part of an inverted collared urn associated with pieces of bone were also recovered from the area of the mound in 1967. Each of the mounds is surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried during contruction of the monument. The south eastern example was recorded as a slight earthwork during the 1960s. Both ditches have become infilled but each will survive as a buried feature approximately 1.5 m wide. The northern of the three round barrows is a pond barrow. This takes the form of a circular depression 10 m in diameter and about 0.5 m deep surrounded by an outer bank 1 m wide and about 0.2 m high. Finds of pottery, burnt bone and shale were recovered from the area of the outer bank by E E Harrison in 1967; these are now held in the Dorset County Museum. All fence posts relating to the field boundary are excluded from the scheduling, althought the ground beneath them in included.

Record last edited

Mar 22 2017 3:39PM