Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on lowland heath close to the
Dorset coast, forming part of the Coombe Beacon round barrow cemetery.
The barrow mound is 0.2m high and 7m in diameter. Surrounding the mound is a
ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the
monument. This has become partly infilled over the years, but can still be
seen as a slight depression on the west side of the mound 0.1m deep and 1m
wide.

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.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They comprise
closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds
covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a
considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as
a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit
considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including
several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier
long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them,
contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been
revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a
marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other
important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent
locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst
their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly-surviving examples are
considered worthy of protection.

The bowl barrow on Coombe Heath, forming an outlier of the Coombe Beacon
barrow cemetery, has survived well and contains archaeological remains and
environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it
was constructed. This barrow is amongst a number which survive on the piece of
heathland between the River Frome and the Dorset coast.

Source: Historic England