The fourth barrow uncovered during the Thanet Earth investigations comprised a single, circular ring-ditch around 15m in diameter, around a slightly off-centre crouched inhumation burial of a young adult male. The barrow was built on a very slight south-west facing slope, on the 34m OD contour with fine views of the sea and western lowlands of Thanet. The ditch itself measured an average of 1.77m wide at its top and 0.52m at its base with a mean depth of 0.76mThe central burial, radiocarbon dated to 1732 to 1537 cal BC was relatively well preserved but no grave goods were found associated.

This barrow unfortunately does not provide much material for further analysis or comparison, beyond its size, probable date and burial. The form and scale of barrow 4 is highly indicative of their early Bronze Age origin. It almost certainly once had a mound, suggested by ditch infill profiles. That in at least some cases, burials, primary or not, were situated at elevated positions, either higher in the subsoil or within the mound itself and have not survived later mound slighting or reduction in ground level, is suggested by the two scattered remnants of skeletal material within the orbit of Barrow 4, which cannot have derived from the more deeply interred central burial. (information summarised from source) (1)

A ring ditch forming part of a round barrow of Bronze Age date was visible as a cropmark in NMR 2639/3173 01-AUG-1985. This feature was mapped as part of the Historic England Isle of Thanet project in 2024. (2)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2023, Beneath the Seamark: 6000 Years of an Islands History (Monograph). SKE55405.

<2> Historic England Archive, 1920-2024, Historic England Archive Specialist oblique aerial photographs, NMR 2639/3173 01-AUG-1985 (Archive). SKE57106.