[1][2][4] The barrows sit on crests of land at either end of a field in an area of the Mendip Hills with several Neolithic remains.

Between the barrows and Stock Hill is the Priddy Mineries, a nature reserve of the Somerset Wildlife Trust, which is itself a part of the Priddy Pools Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) which was worked for lead for many centuries.

[2] To the north and east of the barrows are further signs of excavations but these were related to lead extraction.

[8] In 1815 John Skinner carried out a partial excavation and identified cremation burials in an oval cyst which was covered by a flat stone just below where ground level would have been in the Bronze Age.

[9][10][11][12] At least one of the Ashen Hill Barrows was excavated by a team led by Herbert E. Balch in 1894.

[13] They were scheduled as ancient monuments in 1933, possibly to stop excavation by the University of Bristol Spelæological Society and local schools.