Illustration — photo coming soon
Just outside Stratton village stands Wellhill Copse Barrow, a Bronze Age burial mound that stretches back thousands of years into prehistory.
These earthworks once served as tombs for important community members, offering a tangible connection to the people who actually lived here in ancient times. When you visit, you're literally standing on layers of history.
The surrounding area reveals a much deeper story. Cirencester, which the Romans called Corinium Dobunnorum, lies nearby and was one of their largest settlements outside London. Archaeological finds scattered across the Stratton area show substantial Roman activity throughout the region, so you can picture how different periods of settlement layered and built upon each other over the centuries.
The barrow itself is best explored at a leisurely pace rather than rushed through, allowing you time to really feel the sense of age and continuity the landscape conveys. There's something genuinely affecting about standing where people gathered to bury their dead so many centuries ago. You could easily combine your visit with a walk through Stratton village itself, or drive a short distance into Cirencester to visit the Corinium Museum, where many of the Roman discoveries from this region are displayed. It's an excellent way to understand just how deeply human settlement in the Cotswolds is rooted, and how communities here have continually inhabited and shaped this landscape for millennia.
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