Bulbarrow Hill

Bulbarrow Hill
File:Bulbarrow Hill and Balmers Coombe Bottom - geograph.org.uk - 57825.jpg Bulbarrow Hill and Balmers Coombe Bottom, looking west from the footpath to Rawlsbury Camp
Highest point
Elevation
Prominence
Parent peak	Lewesdon Hill
Listing	HuMP, sub-Marilyn
Geography
Location	Dorset, England
Parent range	Dorset Downs
OS grid	ST779056
Topo map	OS Landranger 194 Explorer 117E

Bulbarrow Hill is a 274-metre (899 feet) hill near Woolland, five miles west of Blandford Forum and ten miles (16 km) north of Dorchester in Dorset, England. The chalk hill is part of the scarp of Dorset Downs, which form the western end of the Southern England Chalk Formation. Part of the hill is used for arable agriculture, but most is calcareous grassland. The hill overlooks the Blackmore Vale, and offers views of Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and Devon.

Rawlsbury Camp, a five acre Iron Age hill fort, is situated on a promontory of the hill. Little remains of the camp except the twin embankments and intermediate ditch which surrounded it. The hill gets its name from the several barrows that adorn the hill. Additionally, a medieval trackway crosses the ridge. A more recent addition is the twin radio transmitter towers used by the emergency services.

The hill is a popular launch site for paragliders.

The TV presenter Jack Hargreaves who died in 1994 had his ashes spread on Bulbarrow Hill above his home, Raven Cottage.

In popular culture

The British band, Half Man Half Biscuit, refer to Bulbarrow Hill in the track, Third Track Main Camera Four Minutes, taken from their 2000 album Trouble Over Bridgwater, in which the narrator bemoans the increasing popularity of 'trendy' holiday destinations such as Cuba and Iceland, saying 'I’d much rather go down to Dorset, with its wonderful Bulbarrow Hill'.

External links

• Map sources for Bulbarrow Hill
• The Megalithic Portal: Rawlsbury Camp