Maps & Background : Round & Long Barrows

• Dorset
• Bournemouth
• Corfe Castle
• Isle of Purbeck
• Jurassic Coast

• Neolithic England
• Round & Long Barrows
• Salisbury
• Stonehenge
• The New Forest

The Long and the Short of it! The landscape of Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire, like much of Great Britain, is dotted with ancient burial mounds. These fall, broadly, into two types, Long Barrows and Round Barrows.

Altogether Now! The older of the two forms is the long barrow. Around 300 are found, mostly in the south and east of England, and all date from the Neolithic between 4000 BC-2500 BC. They are distinguished by their size and shape. Most are around 30 metres long, with some over 100 metres, and are elongated rectangles in shape. They consist of long stone lined chambers usually with a covering of earth. The other indicative feature is presence of multiple burials, many individuals are interred in a single site. The burials found within them are usually disjointed and lacking grave goods. Some experts believe that the barrows are places of ancestor worship where the bones of the dead were venerated.

Very Well, Alone! Round barrows are the more common form of burial site. Upward of 70,000 are found in the UK and they date from the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age through the Iron Age, 2500 BC-500 AD. As their name suggests they are generally circular mounds of earth and, unlike long barrows, contain a single individual with variety grave goods. The quality and type of these grave goods show that most round barrows contained high status individuals.