Welcome to the Bourne Stone Trail

The castle  and abbey may no longer be around today, but that does not mean there are no traces of their remains. So, with a keen eye, and the aid of this Bourne Stone Trail Guide, you will soon see that there are more possible castle and abbey remains out there than one first imagines. Some are really obvious, but then there are those that are so subtle, one could understand how it could easily have been missed.

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What are we looking for when we talk about the castle and abbey stone?

 Firstly, it has been reputed that the Shippon barn at the Well Head castle site had been constructed using materials from the castle. It would therefore stand to reason that we look for any stones which resembles the ones used on the Shippon barn.

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How can we be sure that the Shippon barn was constructed using old castle stone?

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There’s two reasons - The first is that in 2002 there was a watching brief, and during that watching brief four walls were discovered. They were documented as being ashlar facing blocks.

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Studying the photos from the watching brief one can deduce that they are similar colour to the ones used in the Shippon barn. However, this is by no means conclusive.

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Secondly, in November 2019, workmen were planting trees when they too smashed through castle stone (Sadly the same happened in 2002 during the watching brief).

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However, on this occasion we were able to take a sample of the stone to match it with the Shippon barn and other stone found around Bourne town within the vicinity of the castle grounds.

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The aim of the Bourne Stone Trail is not to authenticate the stones as belonging to either the castle or the abbey, but to generate an interest in the town in general.

Whilst on the walk, we will alert you to other historical interests to make the walk around Bourne a both fun and educational

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Enjoy the trail!