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Bowl barrow on Swyre Head is a Bronze Age burial monument located on elevated terrain in Dorset. The barrow takes the form of a circular earthwork mound characteristic of the bowl barrow type, which represents one of the commonest funerary structures of the Bronze Age in southern England. Such monuments typically date to the period between approximately 2200 and 1500 BCE, serving as focal points for communal burial and ceremonial practice across the chalk downlands of Wessex. The site's location on Swyre Head reflects the Bronze Age preference for positioning burial monuments on prominent landscape features, ensuring their visibility and enduring presence within the local topography.
Bowl barrow on Swyre Head is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England under reference 1017271. View the official record →
Bowl barrow on Swyre Head is a Bronze Age burial monument located on elevated terrain in Dorset. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic England (NHLE) under reference 1017271.
Bowl barrow on Swyre Head is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic England (NHLE) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in England. The official designation reference is 1017271.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Iron Age settlement and associated field system on Smedmore Hill (1.3 km), Kingston Down Romano-British farm (2.3 km), Alum works, other multi-period industrial remains and an associated group of jetties and breakwaters, Kimmeridge Bay (2.5 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Bowl barrow on Swyre Head's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Bowl barrow on Swyre Head stands on Portland Group, bedrock that formed in the Portlandian. The rock here is limestone and calcareous sandstone.