Bush Barrow

Bush Barrow is a Bronze Age burial mound in Wiltshire, part of the Normanton Down Barrows cemetery near Stonehenge. It stands on a ridge about one kilometre southwest of the stone circle, at the western end of a line of around forty burial mounds. The earthworks form a large circular mound about forty-nine metres across and three metres high, with traces of three building phases. The barrow was named by the early excavator William Cunnington because bushes once grew on its summit. The grave goods found here in 1808 are among the richest Bronze Age finds in Britain. They include a gold lozenge, gold belt plate, bronze daggers, an axe, a stone macehead and bronze rivets, now kept in Devizes Museum. Archaeologists describe the burial as the most significant in the Stonehenge area and possibly in the whole country. The gold used came from Cornwall, the same source as metal for the Nebra sky disc and Irish gold lunulae. Visitors see a grassy mound rising above the surrounding ridge, with clear breaks in its slopes marking earlier building stages. The site lies beside a bridleway and within a nature reserve where rare birds are encouraged to breed. From the ridge there are wide views across the plain towards Stonehenge, and the barrow itself shows the careful shaping of its mound and summit.