Monument record MDR814 - Round barrow, Old Hill, Ashbourne

A barrow on the eminence near the Compton Road, Ashbourne, was opened 24.5.1858 but only flints, including a fragment of a celt, were found. (1) Not located. (2) There is a 'low adjoining Ashbourne on the Old Hill. This low is on the northerly slope of the hill…'. 'The Low on the Old Hill, Ashbourne, is of peculiar construction. It bears traces of a raised terrace running all round the mound, or low proper, giving somewhat the appearance of a soup plate turned wrong side up.' (3) In 1911 Matthews refers not only to 'The low on the Old Hill', but also to another possible barrow: "About 0.62 mile a little west of south from Ashbourne church is a mound which I take to be a low." (4) However, as he was trying to prove the importance of the angle 30 degrees west of north as applied to lows, stating for example that 'If the angle be marked, generally by a depression on the sky-line, or sometimes by two outside points being exactly in one gradient with the top of the mound, I am satisfied that the mound is a low', his identification cannot be regarded as conclusive. Marsden's survey of burial mounds gives a grid reference of the barrow on Old Hill as SK 18194601, and dimensions of 30 paces in diameter and 3½ feet high. He considered Bateman's 'eminence' near Compton Road to be a separate barrow. (6) The grid reference falls in an area that was allotment gardens through the late 19th century and into the 20th century. It is difficult to assess, from the information available, whether or not two barrows existed in this area. Nothing is depicted on the 6" Ordnance Survey map of 1887. (7) This feature comprises a low grass covered mound spread by ploughing. It is located on a slight eminence, south of the crest overlooking Ashbourne. The Weaver Hills are visible to the north-west and Ilam to the north. Views to the south are truncated. (8)