Monument record MDO7995 - Round Barrow in the Ballard Down Group, Ballard Down, Swanage

A Bronze Age bowl barrow on Ballard Down, one of a group of barrows in this area. It is crossed by a fence and has a boundary stone on top. It straddles the Swanage and Studland parish boundary. It was about 9.1 m in diameter and 0.3 m high, but to the north of the fence the barrow has been ploughed out and is no longer visible. It had been disturbed by 1940's activity.

'D' - SZ 02758125. A slight elongated mound, orientated north-south, and surmounted by a boundary stone (shown on OS 6"), is probably a natural feature. <2> Ballard Down Group of round barrows lie close together on the spine of the steep:sided chalk ridge. The area, built on the disturbed circa 1940, and now almost levelled by ploughing, contains numerous slight rises similarly marked by concentrations of stone rubble, making identification of barrows recorded here very difficult. The reasonably certain barrows are: 'D'-(86)-SZ 02768125. Bowl(?) barrow, about 30ft diameter and 1ft high. Boundary stone on top. (Grinsell's Studland No 5) see field report Authy 2. <4-5> Until recently, when it came to the National Trust, Ballard Down was regularly ploughed but it is now reverting to downland. Since the RCHM reported on this barrow group in 1970 (3) RCHM 84 (SZ 02728124) and RCHM 85 (SZ 02738123) have been ploughed out and only the faintest traces remain. RCHM 87 remains as described but is doubtfully a barrow. RCHM 86 (SZ 02748125) has a boundary stone on top, on the line of the fence seperating NTL from arable to the N, and only the N side is now surveyable. On grassland these 'features' are in bad condition, 160m OD. Surveyed at 1:2500. <5>

Record last edited

Apr 14 2023 7:19PM