Shooters Hut disc barrow, 1500m south-west of Duckley Nap, Long Mynd

Summary

Disc barrow located immediately to the NE of the Ratlinghope road, a funerary monument of the Early Bronze Age c.1400-1200BC. A modern shooting butt in the middle of the barrow was removed and the barrow excavated in July 1992 by a NT Acorn Camp.

Identification Images (3)

Monument Types

Description

(1-2) The remains of a large disc barrow situated in a saddle known as 'The Burying Ground' lying below ground rising to the NE and SW. The central mound survives, though considerably disturbed. It is a circular mound 21m in diameter and up to 2.3m high. The centre and eastern quarter of the mound have been hollowed out to a depth of 0.8m and a concrete shooting hut has been constructed in the central excavated area. The damage to the eastern quarter is depicted on the )S map of 1882 and the cavity was used for the construction of a grouse shooting hut sometime before 1895. The current remains of the hut date from a later period when it was enlarged and refitted. The elevations and floors survive, forming a rectangular yard 4.6m E-W and 3.5m N-S, the walls standing to 1.2m high with an entrance in the E side. The barrow mound is positioned centrally within a surrounding bank which forms a circular enclosure with an overall diameter of 54m. The area internal to the bank itself is between 5m and 6m in width and stands up to 0.5m high. The enclosure is crossed by a modern trackway running SW-NE cutting through its bank in the NE and SE quarters. Elsewhere the bank is well defined except for some 17m in the NE quadrant where it has been reduced and spread. There is no visible surface evidence of a ditch from which the material for the construction of either the mound or the surrounding bank was quarried.

The disc barrow known as The Shooting Box survives well and is a good example of an unusual class of monument; the only one of its kind known to exist in Shropshire. Though the upper central area of the barrow mound has been disturbed by past excavation and the construction of the shooting hut, the lower portion of the mound survives undisturbed and will retain primary archaeological deposits. The barrow mound and the surrounding bank will also preserve, sealed beneath them on the old land surface, important environmental evidence relating to the landscape in which the monument was constructed. The monument is one of several monuments of similar date on The Long Mynd and, as such, contributes to the understanding of the intensity of settlement and nature of land-use occurring in this area of upland during the Bronze Age (Scheduling description last amended in 1993).

NB: The remains of the shooting hut were removed and the barrow partially excavated in July 1992. The excavation was then covered and re-seeded.

References

Designations

Other Statuses and References

Associated Events

Associated Finds

None Recorded

Related Records

None Recorded