Summary

Substantial bowl barrow in the NW quarter of the hillfort. It is part of the Beacon Hill barrow cemetery. It is an irregularly shaped flat-topped mound measuring 12.2 by 9.1 metres and 1.6 metres in height, with a surrounding ditch 4 metres wide and 0.4 metres deep.

Identification Images (1)

Most Recent Monitoring

None Recorded

Monument Types

Description

A well defined bowl barrow sited at the highest point of the hill in the NW quarter of Ivinghoe Beacon. Wainwright [4] mentions a large depression in the centre of the mound and suggests this may have been the site of the beacon, which was described in the Victoria County History [5] as an iron 'kettle' on a pole. Sheahan mentions 'There is an old iron frame kept in Ivinghoe church, said to have been used for lighting the beacon' (7). A narrow groove 1.7 metres wide and 0.2 metres deep has been caused by walkers and this has probably removed any trace of an earlier excavation. It is interesting to note that this feature appears on one of the enclosure maps of Ivinghoe c.1809 (6) and therefore appears to have been a significant landscape feature even at this date.

This is barrow number 1 in Dyer's 1959 study of barrows in the Chilterns [3]

(G Marshall)

Brief description of round barrow cemeteries.

Round barrows (of which a bowl barrow is one type) date to the Bronze Age (2000-700 BC).They usually comprise of fairly closely spaced groups of up to 30 barrows. The construction is that of rubble or earth being piled up to cover single or multiple burials. In the case of the bowl barrow type, the mound material was principally obtained by digging a circular ditch and heaping the spoil in the centre to cover the burial. The surrounding ditches often silt up over time, but are usually visible as faint depression or as a crop mark. Most cemeteries developed over a considerable period of time, often many centuries They were also often re-used for secondary burials as in the case of Anglo-Saxon burials. They exhibit considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including several different types of round barrow. Occasionally earlier forms of long barrow are associated with round barrow cemeteries. Wherever large scale excavation has been undertaken beyond barrows, contemporary and/or later "flat" burials have been found. This should be taken into consideration when assessing how best to manage the overall barrow cemetery landscape.
Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a marked concentration in Wessex and in some cases they cluster around other monuments such as henges. This barrow is part of the Beacon Hill barrow cemetery.

(M Solik)

A full description of Ivinghoe Beacon can be found under NTSMR151510.

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Associated Events

Associated Finds

None Recorded

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