The top of the long barrow
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Along the Ridgeway, not far from the Uffington White Horse, Wayland’s Smithy is a Neolithic long barrow set amongst beech trees. It was first constructed around 3700 BC as an enclosed wooden mortuary with a stone floor. The stone barrow was built about 3400 BC. Later it was covered by a mound of chalk, a material plentiful in the area! It measures 185 feet long and is 43 feet wide at its widest, southern end.
Entrance to the stone monument
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
It was excavated in 1963 and found to contain the remains of eleven males, two females and a child, all interred during a fifteen-year period. The above photograph shows its appearance after reconstruction.
Its name stems from the belief that it was inhabited by the Saxon god of smiths and metalwork, Wayland (or Weland, Volund, Volundr). Legend claims that Wayland was a blacksmith. Any traveller along the Ridgeway whose horse had cast a shoe could leave the animal and a silver coin at the mound. When the rider returned, the animal would be freshly shod and the coin gone.
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