Visiting Neolithic sites can be a mixed bag in my experience. Sometimes you are left unimpressed by a random grouping of stones, other times however these tombs can move you at a far deeper level than even the most glorious castle can, Uley Long Barrow is certainly a case for the latter.

Uley is a partially reconstructed chambered tomb. This trapezoidal mound is 37 metres in length and 34 metres in width, its maximum height is 3 metres. The short walk across a field that brings the Long Barrow into view adds to the experience as it overlooks the Severn Valley. When you crawl into the tomb itself the power of the site becomes evident and palpable. Any outside noise is muted by the dry stone walling and it is a peaceful place where I spent considerable time happily uninterrupted.

A 7 metre passageway leads into the tomb, with a chamber at the very end, when in use the passage would’ve continued past this ‘chamber’. To the south-side of the passageway lie two other tombs, I thought this unusual at the time of visiting, unsure why there were no tombs to the north-side, I found out later that the two to the north had been destroyed during quarrying in 1821 when the mounds status as a tomb was still unknown.

During excavations in 1821 and again in 1854 the bodies of around 23 people were discovered. A later intrusive Roman age burial was found above the northeast chamber. The mound is also known as Hetty Pegler’s Tump, after the wife of a 17th century landowner named Henry Pegler.

GPS: 51.69846, -2.30571