When I moved here, the woods were both overgrown and full of tossed trash, beds, appliances.... just piles of garbage. All except this one area down a path in the woods that was all mowed and cared-for. The one place on the property that someone tended.
It has a weird home-made chair in it... I imagined that was for a ritual of some kind....
Kewl! I love all the pictures of your property!!! I would have a field day spending a week there just roaming the land. It is so green and beautiful.
You know, as I look at the witch circle again, I think someone --- possibly not a human --- may be buried at the foot of that tree, and the chair is there to make visiting easy.
As for your barrel ... if I wanted to hide something metallic, I would dig a deep hole, bury it, partially fill with dirt, then plop a barrel on top and finish burying. Even with a metal detector, you'd only find the barrel, not the other thing ... and you might not look under the barrel.