DORSET, England – Flower’s Barrow hillfort is currently on the Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register: perched on the edge of the cliffs above Worbarrow Bay in the Lulworth Training Area in Dorset, the site is currently in danger of falling into the sea. But this is no ordinary archaeological investigation – it’s being undertaken by the military.
View west from Flower’s Barrow – Image credit: Philip Halling – CC BY-SA 2.0
The ancient site stands on Ministry of Defence (MOD) land and military veterans and professional archaeologists from Wessex Archaeology are taking part in a Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) dig to find out what they can about the site before it is lost. The military side of the dig is part of Operation Nightingale: an award-winning scheme which allows wounded, injured, and unwell service personnel and veterans to take part in archaeological digs on Defence estates.
Guy Salkeld, who is leading the excavation for the DIO, says:
“Looking after our land and heritage is really important to the MOD and archaeology on military land is often better preserved than it would otherwise be, as it’s protected from development and industrial agriculture. Unfortunately, even the MOD is powerless against the might of the sea. That’s why it’s really important that we gather as much information as possible about Flower’s Barrow while we still can. My hope is that this excavation fills in the gaps in our knowledge of the site and ultimately, that we learn enough for it to come off the Heritage at Risk Register.”
The site features ancient ramparts, with the cliffs forming part of the defences. Within the ramparts are the traces of Iron Age huts: this fort would have belonged to the Durotriges: one of the Iron Age tribes living on the South coast of Britain before the Roman invasion. They were a Celtic people, spreading from Dorset into south Somerset and Wiltshire, who may have been a federation of peoples rather than a single tribe.
The people were quite sophisticated, producing their own coins and trading across the Channel. They farmed, partly protected by hill forts such as Maiden Castle near Dorchester. They may have put up a resistance to the Romans, but are more likely to have been absorbed into the Romano-British communities of southern Britain.
Worbarrow bay and Flowers barrow – Image credit: Jim Champion – CC BY-SA 3.0
Some burials have been discovered, including that of a young woman buried with an ornamental mirror and jewellery, near Chesil Beach (not a sacrifice: she probably died of a chest infection and might have had scurvy).
Less tangible traces of the later Roman invaders are said to remain, too, in reports of a phantom Roman army, first recorded in 1678, when a local squire, his brother and several workmen are said to have witnessed the army marching from Flower’s Barrow over Grange Hill. The witnesses reported hearing the sound of the Romans’ armour and on rousing the local village, some hundred people are said to have seen the army, which vanished before it reached Wareham.
However, it is said to have reappeared in the 1930s, being spotted marching across Binden Hill, and on another occasion a group of ‘skin clad’ but equally ghostly people were seen coming down from Flower’s Barrow itself.
Flower’s Barrow is not the only place where a spectral Roman army has been glimpsed. An engineer working in the basement of Treasurer’s House, behind York Minster, in the 1950s, is said to have heard the sound of the ‘buccinae’, a Roman war horn, drawing closer and closer. Then a cart emerged from the wall, followed by around twenty legionaries. They looked, he said, ‘tired and dirty’ and were walking through the floor itself, being visible only from the knees up.
Investigators later found the remains of a Roman road beneath the old house, around knee height under the current floor. Perhaps these spirits were the remnants of the famous missing Ninth Legion, which is known to have been based in the district. Romans have also been spotted on the M6 motorway, one of Britain’s busiest roads, and said to be one of its most haunted.
More Roman soldiers have also allegedly been seen marching through the cellars of the Golden Eagle in Castle Street in Chester – an old Roman town. And also in Chester, a Roman Legion said to walk between the ruins of the Roman Amphitheatre at Vicars Lane and Newgate, where there is supposed to have been an old Roman watch tower. This ghostly sighting was first reported in late Tudor times.
None of these legions ever seem to interact with observers (although see one of our eye-witness statements below!): they’re like a read-only version of a ghost, prompting suggestions of ‘stone tape’ theories from parapsychologists, who post that certain roads and buildings record episodes of the past and occasionally play them back in the present day.
TWH asked the U.K. Pagan community about their own experiences:
“One year around Halloween – Nov 5th kinda time I once saw out of my bedroom window a whole load of Roman soldiers, possibly a legion, marching along a street in Colchester – the old Roman Capital… Was half asleep at the time though, soon woke me up! I used to work in Colchester Castle Museum and ghosts, including Roman ones, are part and parcel of working there and in the next door Holly Trees Museum. The Castle was built on an old Roman Temple of Claudius that was burned down by Boudicca and co with an awful lot of people in it at the time,” folklorist and historian Ceri Norman shared with TWH.
Rhiannon Daniel, who identifies as a sensitive said, “Yes, found myself in the middle of a load of military looking types on horses who squelched through me in Petworth Woods. That’s really haunted. I would never go there again, I hate the vibe. My ex also saw 17th C horsemen riding across the road in Nutfield, Surrey, near the small aerodrome.”
American folklorist, Sabina Magliocco shared, “While climbing Glastonbury Tor in 2005, I heard the sound of clinking armour, bridle hardware, and marching. There were faint voices and I could distinguish Latin words. Chilled, I kept walking, and the legion eventually passed me.”
“I had an encounter with a group of Roman soldiers at St Anthony’s Well in the forest of Dean. I stayed overnight with a friend for a fire and women’s private ceremony, we walked to our spot blindfold led by her partner so we wouldn’t know where we were exactly. We put out the fire and sat quietly meditating after we had done our work. After about 15 mins very tuned into the woods we both heard a legion of Roman soldiers and horses being quite noisy! They stopped and watered the horses. In the morning we realised we were bout 20yds from the Well! Felt very real,” Astrologer, Janetta Morton told TWH.
Publisher Robert Shehu-Ansell recounted a ghostly experience, “My first ouija experience (c. 1975) involved an entity self-identified as ‘Tin Hat’… we presumed him a soldier. It was a really strong presence.”
“[I] was on a training exercise on one of the bases with lots of underground bunker space and came above ground for something at 2 am and surprised a legionnaire as much as I surprised myself given we were both armed. No shots were fired, but one of those special interactive ghost moments. Definitely not a cosplayer given that it was a secure base, too,” Hari, a Shamanic Practitioner said.
Druid Val Marland recounted an experience in their youth, “My parents had a new house built on an old orchard and my sister and I aged 13 and 10 moved into a shared bedroom at the back of the house. We hated it from day one. Weird energy. We occasionally saw Roman soldiers fighting on the back lawn and once or twice they came through our bedroom. Apparently, the fields beyond our house were the site of a fairly large Roman battle.”
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