Wayland's Smithy
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Wayland's Smithy is an Early Neolithic chambered long barrow located near the village of Ashbury in the south-central English county of Oxfordshire. The barrow is believed to have been constructed about 3600 BC by pastoral communities shortly after the introduction of agriculture to the British Isles from continental Europe. Although part of an architectural tradition of long barrow building that was widespread across Neolithic Europe, Wayland's Smithy belongs to a localised regional variant of barrows - found only in south-west of Britain - known as the Severn-Cotswold group. Wayland's Smithy is one of the best surviving examples of this type of barrow.
The long barrow entrance
The right half of the front panel of the 7th century Franks Casket, depicting the legend of Wayland the Smith
Restored entrance into Wayland's Smithy
The site is used for rituals by Modern Pagans
Long barrow
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Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material represent the oldest widespread tradition of stone construction in the world. Around 40,000 long barrows survive today.
View of Wayland's Smithy Long Barrow, a long barrow near Uffington in Oxfordshire
In cases such as Kit's Coty House, Kent, the earthen mound of a long barrow has been worn away by the weather or removed, exposing a stone chamber within. In this case, the surviving chamber represents a trilithon that is commonly called a dolmen.
Jacket's Field Long Barrow, one of the earthen long barrows that are clustered around the River Stour in Kent.
The Grønsalen Barrow on the Danish island of Møn