Lyneham

Long Barrow, Oxfordshire

The Lyneham Barrow Monolith. Photo � Celia Haddon

OS Map: OL45 The Cotswolds OS Map Preview amazon.co.uk bookshop.co.uk (up to 20% off) countrybookshop.co.uk (up to 20% off, free UK P&P OS Map ref: SP297211 Nearest town: Chipping Norton Nearest village: Churchill

This impressive old prehistoric stone, erroneously described by James [1992] as only four feet tall, stands at the northern end of this collapsed chambered tomb. When Grinsell [1936] described his visit here there was another "large upright stone" in the centre of the great mound. The field in which the stone stands now lies fallow and the long barrow bears ther scars of 19th century excavations. The stone may have been a blocking stone, or as James Dyer [1970] proposes, part of s false entrance. There is a smaller one-and-a-half foot tall stone six feet to the south-east of the six-foot monolith.

Well worth visiting. just a few hundred yards from here is some fascinating shamanic lore. Turner [1993] describes how at the old quarry on the other side of the road from the long barrow where Pudlicote Lane begins, "Local legend claims that many years ago an old lady known as 'Gran' lived in a cave in the quarry, where she kept a hoard of old gold sovereigns. No one knows what became of the old lady, but in more recent times there have been several sightings of a ghostly figure in the vicinity of the old quarry." J. A. Brooks [1992] reports that at the crossroads just above this standing stone, where the prehistoric camp is, "[H]er ghost in the form of a 'white lady', is supposed to haunt the... junction here.

Access: See above for map links

Text from The Old Stones of Rollright and District by Paul Bennett & Tom Wilson

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