Bush Barrow
Bush Barrow on Normanton Down
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 Shown within Wiltshire
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| Location | grid reference SU11644126 |
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| Coordinates | 51°10′14″N 1°50′05″W / 51.17051°N 1.834819°WCoordinates: 51°10′14″N 1°50′05″W / 51.17051°N 1.834819°W |
| Type | Tumulus |
| Part of | Normanton Down round barrow cemetery |
| History | |
| Periods | Bronze Age |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1808 |
| Archaeologists | William Cunnington |
| Ownership | Managed as RSPB Reserve |
| Public access | No (but near bridleway) |
| Website | Wiltshire Museum Gallery |
| Official name | Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | i, ii, iii |
| Designated | 1986 (10th session) |
| Reference no. | 373 |
| Region | Europe and North America |
| Designated | 1925 |
| Reference no. | 1009618 |
Bush Barrow is a site of the early British Bronze Age (c. 2000 BC), at the western end of the Normanton Down Barrows cemetery. It is among the most important sites of the Stonehenge complex, having produced some of the most spectacular grave goods in Britain. It was excavated in 1808 by William Cunnington for Sir Richard Colt Hoare. The finds, including worked gold objects, are displayed at Wiltshire Museum in Devizes.
Bush Barrow is situated around 1 kilometre southwest of Stonehenge on Normanton Down. It forms part of the Normanton Down Barrows cemetery. The surviving earthworks have an overall diameter of 49 metres (161 ft) and comprise a large mound with breaks in the slope suggesting three phases of development. The barrow currently stands 3.3 metres high and its summit measures 10.5 metres in diameter.
The barrow is one of the "associated sites" in the World Heritage Site covering Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites (Cultural, ID 373, 1986). The Normanton Down round barrow cemetery comprises some 40 barrows strung out along an east-west aligned ridge. Bush Barrow (so named by Cunningham because it had bushes on it) is towards the western end of the line of barrows, sited at the highest point of the ridge.
The barrow was excavated in 1808 by William Cunnington for Sir Richard Colt Hoare. It contained a male skeleton with a collection of funerary goods that make it 'the richest and most significant example of a Bronze Age burial monument not only in the Normanton Group or in association with Stonehenge, but arguably in the whole of Britain'. The items date the burial to the early Bronze Age, 1900-1700BC, and include a large 'lozenge'-shaped sheet of gold, a sheet gold belt plate, three bronze daggers, a bronze axe, a stone macehead and bronze rivets, all on display at the Wiltshire Museum, Devizes.
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