Long barrow 250m north of Normanton Gorse

Reasons for Designation

A small number of areas in southern England appear to have acted as foci for ceremonial and ritual activity during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. Two of the best known and earliest recognised areas are around Avebury and Stonehenge, now jointly designated as a World Heritage Site. The area of chalk downland which surrounds Stonehenge contains one of the densest and most varied groups of Neolithic and Bronze Age field monuments in Britain. Included within the area are Stonehenge itself, the Stonehenge cursus, the Durrington Walls henge, and a variety of burial monuments, many grouped into cemeteries. The area has been the subject of archaeological research since the 18th century when Stukeley recorded many of the monuments and partially excavated a number of the burial mounds. More recently, the collection of artefacts from the surfaces of ploughed fields has supplemented the evidence for ritual and burial by revealing the intensity of contemporary settlement and land-use. In view of the importance of the area, all ceremonial and sepulchral monuments of this period which retain significant archaeological remains are identified as nationally important. Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone mounds often with flanking ditches and acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle Neolithic periods (3400-2400 BC). They represent the burial places of Britain's early farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments surviving visibly in the present landscape. Where investigated, long barrows appear to have been used for communal burial, often with only parts of the human remains having been selected for interment. Certain sites provide evidence for several phases of funerary monument preceding the barrow and it is probable that long barrows acted as important ritual sites for local communities over a considerable period of time. Some 500 long barrows and long cairns, their counterparts in the uplands, are recorded in England of which at least nine survive in the Stonehenge area. These represent an important group for understanding the historical context within which Stonehenge developed during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods.

The long barrow 250m north of Normanton Gorse survives comparatively well and is known from partial excavation to contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow situated 250m north of Normanton Gorse and just south of the A303. It occupies a south-facing slope on the southern margin of Stonehenge Down. The barrow mound, which is orientated NNW-SSE ,is up to 1.8m high, 32m long and c.18m wide. Flanking the mound on the east and west sides are quarry ditches from which material was taken during the construction of the monument. These have become partially infilled over the years but are still visible as slight earthworks. The ditch on the north east side is c.6m wide, that on the south west is c.8m wide. The barrow was partially excavated in the 19th century and produced three primary inhumations and two later burials.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

10313

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 206
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 137

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.