Long barrow on Little Toyd Down, 760m south west of Grims Lodge Farm

Reasons for Designation

Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone mounds 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, consequently, it is probable that long barrows acted as important ritual sites for local communities over a considerable period of time. Some 500 examples of long barrows and long cairns, their counterparts in the uplands, are recorded nationally. As one of the few types of Neolithic structure to survive as earthworks, and due to their comparative rarity, their considerable age and their longevity as a monument type, all long barrows are considered to be nationally important.

The long barrow 760m south west of Grims Lodge Farm is a well preserved example of its class. Despite the infilling of the quarry ditches the barrow exhibits a largely original profile and will include archaeological remains containing information about Neolithic beliefs, economy and environment.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow known as the Giant's Grave, lying in a prominent position on a south facing slope immediately below the crest of Little Toyd Down. The barrow includes a mound 54m long aligned almost precisely east-west across the slope. The mound, which slopes gently along its length, is 2.2m high at its highest, eastern end where it also reaches its maximum width of 20m. It is flanked on both sides by ditches from which material for its construction was quarried. These have become almost entirely infilled but survive as buried features approximately 6m wide. A linear buried feature running parallel to the north side of the mound at a distance of approximately 15m may be a chalk extraction pit of recent origin and is therefore not included in the scheduling.

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:

26815

Legacy System:

RSM

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.