Hellstone Barrow

This is supposedly one of Dorset’s best known Neolithic monument… and to think, I’d never even heard of it, let alone set my eyes on it, until today that is!!

Hellstone Barrow

The Hellstone Barrow is in fact Dorset’s last surviving Dolmen with the capstone and chambers intact. Believed to have been erected around 4,000 BC, its on the Ridgeway running between Abbotsbury and Weymouth, just above Portesham, and is probably the oldest manmade structure still standing in Dorset. It’s remarkably close to a main road, but deceptively hard to find, so make sure you have a guide book of some kind with you.  I was fortunate on my visit to be the only person there. I had it all to myself for over an hour, and found the atmosphere to be almost tangible.

The View From Inside The Hellstone Barrow

Consisting of nine verticle stones, or Orthostats, and a single huge capstone, estimated at 20 tons, its an amazing site to see on the edge of a ploughed Dorset field. You can squeeze inside to a chamber beneath the capstone, measuring around 9 x 5ft, and with it all to myself, I allowed my mind to drift and had a go at meditating.  I had a go at capturing the view across the rolling hills (see my picture).

The area is littered with cairns and tumuli, and just 50 yards to the east there’s a mound, cut in two by farming. A quick examination of the site found two large stones, one half buried…. connected? Who knows.

I dowsed for some time, and had all kinds of results (understanding them is the difficult bit), but one result that I was particularly pleased with was that I picked up on a ley line running from the stone, connecting with Maiden Castle and on to the church at West Stafford. I was pretty chuffed with myself.

I think this would be an amazing site to visit on an ink dark night, and plan to return to see how it all ‘feels’ under different circumstances.