The Grey Mare and her Colts

The Grey Mare and her Colts is a Neolithic chambered long barrow near Abbotsbury in Dorset. It stands at the head of a dry valley in the parish of Long Bredy. The site belongs to a group of similar monuments along the South Dorset Ridgeway. About two kilometres to the east lies the Hell Stone, and one kilometre northwest is the Kingston Russell Stone Circle. An Ordnance Survey map shows the way to the barrow. The tomb today is a low, nearly rectangular mound about 24 metres long. It rises only about a metre above the ground and tapers from 13 metres wide at one end to 8 metres at the other. At the wider end stand four large sarsen stones, three upright and one fallen. Behind them a horizontal slab may once have been the capstone of the burial chamber. Small upright stones mark the edge of the mound, probably remains of the original stone kerb. The burial chamber once held the remains of early farming people from 3400 to 2400 BC. When partly excavated in the early nineteenth century, human bones and pottery fragments were found inside. The site shows how Neolithic communities organised their communal tombs. The Grey Mare and her Colts remains a quiet reminder of Britain’s ancient past.