Arcadia Discussion Zone

This really doesn't look like much more than a clump of trees ...



... but this is, in fact, East Kennett Long Barrow, near Avebury in Wiltshire, a huge neolithic burial mound constructed some time between 3,500 and 2,500 BC. I was there on Saturday.

Everyone, of course, knows about the much more famous West Kennett Long Barrow, a short distance away, but back in its day, the barrow at East Kennett would have been just as important, and just as significant a landmark in this remarkable landscape of sacred hills, ancient trackways, barrows, henges and hillforts.

However, this site has never been excavated, and so its interior construction and contents remain a mystery. In fact, it's not even much visited, as it stands on private land, above the little village of East Kennett.

I genuinely hadn't intended on going to it, due to it being on private property, and had planned instead on looking at it from a distance, from trackways to the east and west, whilst walking a round trip from Alton Barnes to East Kennett and back again. But I took the wrong path off the Wansdyke, and went innocently off down a private track, parallel to the footpath I should have been walking along, not realising my error until I approached the barrow itself, on the brow of a hill leading down into the village. No harm done, an honest mistake, etc., and as I was there, I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity of looking around a very little visited neolithic site.

This is looking back up at the barrow from the (private) track down into East Kennett. One gets a sense of its immense size. One can also see that the trees, which are mostly Beech, are very mature, and have stood there for a long time.



Standing at the east end of the little copse the earthwork rises up steeply through the undergrowth. There are no sarsen stones marking what was once presumably the entrance, as there are at this monument's sister barrow at nearby West Kennett, although fragments of this stone have been recorded nearby that may have once been placed around the barrow before it became neglected. The barrow is very overgrown, and I had to pick my way through clumps of high stinging nettles to get to the top. This shows what a dense thicket it is up there, but with a lovely canopy of Beech leaves above one's head.



Although it would be interesting to know what's inside, perhaps it's best left like this; cloaked by nature; its long buried inhabitants left in peace. There isn't, therefore, much information on the site, although Julian Cope's Modern Antiquarian website has some good field notes, which I took with me to read.

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/sit ... arrow.html

Climbing back down, I made my way around the barrow and sat in the field, looking out across the landscape. Most impressive from here is the view of the ancient and enigmatic Silbury Hill, just a few fields over to the north-east, which for some reason, perhaps just due to the workings of my mind that afternoon, was looking particularly pyramid-like from that perspective. It cannot be coincidental that this little clutch of two burial mounds and a man-made hill stand so close together in the landscape.



Walking back in a southerly direction, from East Kennett village to Alton Barnes, along the Ridge Way, one of our most ancient trackways, I tried to imagine the huge mound I had just visited without its thick canopy of trees. The juxtaposition of the barrow and Silbury Hill would have made for an arresting sight for those approaching Avebury from the south.

This barrow is perhaps somewhere that is better looked at - from the nearby public footpaths, that is - in winter, without the dense leaf cover, and when the shape of the mound itself would be more easily discernible. But I still enjoyed the experience of visiting East Kennett Long Barrow, even if I shouldn't really have been there.

Richard, as always, thanks very much for the interesting report! Do you know how that works when something is a known archaeological site on private land? In other words, could the government force the issue and if so, do you know why they haven't? I'm just curious in general how that works in the UK.

I do agree with you that Silsbury is very pyramidal looking from that angle - it reminds me of some of the barely studied Chinese pyramids, which in effect look like hills - interestingly enough, there are quite a few US equivalents as well, although they are dated to thousands of years later - we even have some woodhenges - I suppose once you have an understanding of astronomical cycles, it is a natural urge to build "clocks".

Just out of curiosity, do you happen to know what either of these "squiggle" patterns are (Tractors gone wild; local motocross tracks)?:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=avebury&h ... s&t=h&z=17

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=avebury&h ... s&t=h&z=17

Thanks, Caelum. I would think that if the site was anything like the excavated West Kennett barrow a few fields away, then some form of authority, local or national, could force the issue and compel a landowner to permit access, if it were deemed to be in the public interest. That said, from a personal, philosophical point of view, and much as I love megalithic sites, I tend to recoil at the idea of a landowner's rights being trampled upon in such a way; "an Englishman's home is his castle", etc. (regardless of whether it's an actual castle or my little hovel). But I think with East Kennett, it's never been excavated, and the trees growing on it are hundreds of years old in some cases, so its long been in such a neglected state, and so in respect of the Avebury landscape is something of a one-off. But I'd imagine if someone like English Heritage approached the landowner and offered to fund a proper (and expensive) excavation, they'd probably be amenable, but there doesn't seem to be any such incentive to investigate it further. Equally, the site is probably protected in some way to prevent any potential unauthorised interference by the landowner (the same principle as we have with "listing" buildings).

The general rule with access in the UK is that landowners are obliged to permit access along any form of designated footpath, or ancient byway, trackway or bridleway (old fashioned term for paths suitable for horses). In addition to this, many farmers have what are known as "permissive bridleways" on their land, which is essentially the farmer saying, "I don't have to let you walk across this piece of my land, but you're welcome to use this path (often a short-cut between established paths), at my discretion". We have a lot of these where I live. To be honest, doing a lot of walking in this part of England, one is so spoilt for choice of public paths, that there's no excuse for trespassing. Near where I live in Winchester, for example, we have the South Downs Way, the King's Way, the Wayfarer's Walk, the Itchen Way, the White Way, the Pilgrim's Way, the Ox Drove Way, and a host of others, not to mention the network of country lanes upon which one rarely sees a vehicle. So access is no problem, really.



I think that's probably the nearby moto-cross track. In fact, the Julian Cope field notes I took with me to the barrow, make mention of this, and the annoying background hum, although fortunately I didn't hear it on Saturday.

A couple of short extracts on East Kennett below from Julian Cope's Modern Antiquarian book, which I wanted to add, as they describe the site succinctly but very well, and he also speaks specifically to the placing of the barrow in the wider landscape around Avebury, and also because I like the way JC writes.



This is from his field notes, 27th August 1991: