Details

The monument, which falls into two areas, includes two bowl barrows aligned
north east by south west, situated on Mount Ararat, on the south eastern edge
of a plateau overlooking the Sleep Brook.
The barrows were recorded by L V Grinsell in 1959 and by the Royal Commission
on the Historic Monuments of England in 1975. Each has a mound composed of
sand, earth and turf, with maximum dimensions of 10m in diameter and between
about 0.75m to about 0.9m in height.
Surrounding each mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during the
construction of the monument. The ditches have each become infilled over the
years, but each will survive as a buried feature 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

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments
dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most
examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as
earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple
burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often
acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Often superficially similar,
although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form
and a diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl
barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring
across most of lowland Britain. Often occupying prominent locations, they are
a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable
variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of
protection.

The two bowl barrows on Mount Ararat, 865m and 910m north east of Stephen's
Castle survive well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence
relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
An Inventory of the Historical monuments of Dorset: Volume V, (1975), 74
Grinsell, L V, 'Procs Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Soc.' in Dorset Barrows, (1959), 139

Source: Historic England