Black Down (Portesham)

Nearest town:
Chickerell (8km SE)
OS reference:
SY612875
OS sheet:
194
Latitude:
50° 41' 6.95 N
Longitude:
2° 32' 57.45 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by thesweetcheat

A rather snatched shot, looking down on the ridiculously massive round barrow at Smitten Corner, to the north east of the highest part of Black Down.

Image credit: A. Brookes (16.2.2017)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 2, 2017
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by thesweetcheat

Detail of the bank surrounding the disc(?) barrow to the southwest of the Hardy monument, two round barrows beyond.

Image credit: A. Brookes (16.2.2017)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 2, 2017
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by thesweetcheat

Large disc(?) barrow to the southwest of the Hardy monument.

Image credit: A. Brookes (16.2.2017)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 2, 2017
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by thesweetcheat

Round barrows downhill to the east of the Hardy Monument. Bronkham Hill beyond has a further extensive barrow group.

Image credit: A. Brookes (16.2.2017)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 2, 2017
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by thesweetcheat

The somewhat trashed round barrow immediately east of the Hardy monument.

Image credit: A. Brookes (16.2.2017)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 2, 2017
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by A R Cane

The barrow adjacent to the Hardy Monument on Black Down. Not so much a monument as more like an industrial chimney!

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Sep 11, 2012
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by formicaant

One of the eastern barrows, newly cleared of trees.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 17/04/10
formicaant
formicaant Apr 17, 2010
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by formicaant

This is a northern outlier, near to Blagdon barn, it’s not really part of the Blackdown group but would be too confusing as there is another site called Blagdon in the east of the county.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 21/09/09
formicaant
formicaant Nov 11, 2009
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by formicaant

This very battered round barrow is just next to Hardys’ monument, it has animal damage and is constantly walked upon.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 17/04/2007
formicaant
formicaant Aug 23, 2009
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by formicaant

The most westerly of the group, this overlooks the Valley of the Stones.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 26/03/2007
formicaant
formicaant Aug 23, 2009
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by formicaant

The larger of two bowl barrows, just below and to the north of the Hardy monument.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 26/03/2007
formicaant
formicaant Aug 23, 2009
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by formicaant

Two of the eastern bowl barrows from the path to Bronkham Hill.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 26/03/2007
formicaant
formicaant Aug 23, 2009
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by formicaant

This shows just how much archaeology is in this small corner of south west Dorset. The blue dots are round barrows.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 16/08/07
formicaant
formicaant Jul 26, 2009
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by formicaant

A small, low round barrow to the south of the monument, the wooden posts are there to stop people parking on it!

Image credit: Mike Rowland 25/07/09
formicaant
formicaant Jul 26, 2009
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by formicaant

The large round barrow adjacent to the Hardy monument on the summit of Blackdown hill.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 25/07/09
formicaant
formicaant Jul 26, 2009
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by formicaant

Two people standing on a round barrow next to the Hardy monument.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 07/04/2008.
formicaant
formicaant Apr 7, 2008
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by formicaant

Two of the barrows from Blackdown plantation.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 07/04/2008.
formicaant
formicaant Apr 7, 2008
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by formicaant

A very good condition bowl barrow on the western edge of the group.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 16/08/07
formicaant
formicaant Aug 16, 2007
Image of Black Down (Portesham) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by formicaant

Part of the barrow cemetery from the hill above.

Image credit: Mike Rowland 17/03/2007.
formicaant
formicaant Mar 17, 2007

Articles

Black Down (Portesham)

texlahoma
texlahoma Sep 14, 2012

Kiss me Hardy!
Or on second thoughts perhaps not, these barrows are much more interesting.

On a September evening the Hardy monument car park is close with just the lay-by below serving the occasional dog walker. Parking is still easy though in the lay-by for the heath walk.
These barrows are still pretty fine specimens with incredible views, some well guarded from people with barbed wire but not from the Rabbits who we’re having a great time diving in and out of their burrows.

The late summer sun gave this place an other worldly feel as I drove up to the blind summit bathed in sunlight, shadows all around the car it was like driving directly into the sun and then dropping off the edge of the world into darkness.

Black Down (Portesham)

formicaant
formicaant Apr 18, 2007

Visited this site again and have found another two barrows in the area surrounding the Hardy monument. One is very low and small and the land owner has circled it with wooden posts , as people used to park on top of it. The other is a much larger round barrow , sadly looking in quite a battered condition. This site is a local viewpoint and gets very busy in the summer , most of the damage done to this barrow is probably done by rabbits , which are abundant on this site , but some of it must be man made.

Black Down (Portesham)

formicaant
formicaant Mar 17, 2007

This cemetery grouping of several round barrows sits on a ridge that runs for many miles and is covered in barrows . A walk along the footpath to the southeast of about 2 miles (Bronkham hill) will take you past about twenty barrows of various sizes. This Blackdown is just below the monument to captain Thomas Hardy of Nelson fame and not to be confused with the nearby poor lot cemetery in the Winterbourne valley which is also deeply unhelpfully named as Blackdown on o.s. maps. There are at least two barrows in the nearby woodland, but I’ve yet to find them, must try harder.

Miscellaneous

Black Down (Portesham)
Barrow / Cairn Cemetery
Chance
Chance May 29, 2014

Details of barrow on Pastscape

Bronze Age bowl barrow on Black Down. It measures 8m meters in diameter and 0.35 meters high. Grinsell noted the presence of cross trenches, which he suggested either represented an excavation, or the use of the barrow as a windmill mound. Thus it may have been the barrow excavated by Cunnington in 1878. However, Cunnington described that barrow as being about 100 yards north of the Hardy Monument, which this barrow is not and there is no known barrow is 100 yards north of the Hardy Monument. Cunnington is usually presumed to have excavated barrow SY 68 NW 122, which is the right distance from the monument, but south rather than north. Part of a larger barrow cemetery. Scheduled.

Sites within 20km of Black Down (Portesham)

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