Restoration plans for 'Merlin's Mound' delayed

Demolition work at a neolithic monument where - legend has it - the bones of King Arthur's magician Merlin are buried - has been delayed until the summer.

Originally scheduled to take place in April, the Marlborough Mound Trust confirmed this week it was now scheduled for the summer school holidays.

In November, Wiltshire Council gave Marlborough College permission to demolish 20th Century buildings cut into the side of the nationally-important man-made hill.

A carpentry workshop, toilets, plant room, water meter and pump on the site will now be demolished in July or August.

The buildings will be "taken down slowly, with an archaeologist present", according to the Marlborough Mound Trust, which is working with the college on the project.

A 2024 archaeological assessment said while it was unlikely anything archaeologically significant would be found under the buildings, removing them would enable archaeologists to investigate a cross-section of the mound, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

According to the plans, there is "good potential to encounter traces of the medieval and post-medieval waterways" during the proposed works, which are set to leave a more "visually pleasing" setting for the monument.

The Mound was built 4,000 years ago and, at 60ft (18m) tall, it is second only to nearby Silbury Hill in terms of height.

According to legend, the wizard Merlin, magician and mentor to King Arthur, is buried in the mound, giving the town its motto – ubi nunc sapientis ossa Merlini, or where now are the bones of the wise Merlin.

Following the Norman conquest, William the Conqueror ordered a castle be built on the mound.

Later named Marlborough Castle, any remnants of it were believed to have been demolished along with other castles recaptured from the French by William Marshall, 1st Earl of Pembroke, according to the Marlborough Mound Trust.

The trust was formed in 2000 to conserve and restore the monument.

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