Metlow Hill Round Barrow, Bempton

Metlow Hill preserves a round burial mound in a field near Bempton, west-south-west of Wandale Farm. The mound measures approximately twenty-eight metres across and survives to about one and a half metres in height, despite reduction by ploughing. A surrounding ditch has filled with soil and survives below the surface. William Greenwell investigated the barrow between 1877 and 1889. He recorded a stone arrangement described as a circle or cist around a wood-lined grave containing a child of about five or six years old and a food vessel. The mound also yielded numerous flint implements, including scrapers, knives and saws, together with pottery fragments. These discoveries establish an actual burial rather than an inferred funerary function based solely on shape. Remaining deposits and the ground sealed beneath the mound retain evidence of its construction and surrounding environment. Period: Prehistoric; burial evidence consistent with Bronze Age use Grid reference: TA 20239 72979 Protection: Scheduled monument Source: Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1013195 (Open Government Licence). © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.