Location | near Leintwardine, Herefordshire |
---|---|
Coordinates | 52°20′46″N2°52′54″W / 52.34611°N 2.88167°W |
OS grid reference | SO 400 724 |
Type | Hillfort |
History | |
Periods | Iron Age, Roman |
Site notes | |
Excavation dates | 1981–1985 |
Archaeologists | Sheppard Frere J. K. St Joseph |
Designated | 28 November 1934 |
Reference no. | 1011016 |
Brandon Camp is an archaeological site, about 1 mile south of Leintwardine, in Herefordshire. England. It is a hillfort of the Iron Age, which later became a Roman fort. The site is a scheduled monument. [1]
The visible defences consist of a single bank forming a roughly triangular enclosure, with rounded angles and slightly curved sides, on the western side of Brandon Hill. The maximum dimensions are about 250 metres (820 ft) west to east and 260 metres (850 ft) north to south, enclosing about 3.5 hectares (8.6 acres). The shape of the hill has determined the location of the defences. There is a precipitous slope on the north-west side, thought to have been artificially steepened. There is a clearly defined rampart on the east and south sides. An entrance on the north side, which has been widened, is probably original; there is an entrance on the east side, also widened, and a modern entrance on the south. [1] [2] [3]
The hillfort Coxall Knoll lies about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) to the west-north-west, across the River Teme, and there are buried remains of Roman camps in between, including Buckton Roman Fort. [4]
Aerial photographs taken in 1959 and 1965 showed cropmarks inside the defences, in particular a rectangular area 14.5 by 32 metres (48 by 105 ft) just inside the eastern entrance, thought to be a Roman granary. Aerial photographs of 1965 and 1976 showed that the original Iron Age fort probably occupied most of the hilltop; this suggested that the visible defences date from the Roman period and that, like Hod Hill in Dorset, a Roman fort was built on a captured British fort. [2] [3]
The features seen were investigated by excavation in the early 1980s by Sheppard Frere and J. K. St Joseph. The presence of the granary was confirmed. Immediately to the west were three widely separated canabae , two-roomed huts thought to be accommodation for officers. There were nine huts to the north, spaced more closely together, on either side of what may have been a road. A large circular feature seen as crop-marks on aerial photographs was found to be a Bronze Age ring ditch; nearby there was an Iron Age enclosure ditch. These were partly overlaid by a group of buildings around three sides of a courtyard, with other buildings adjacent to this. The area was interpreted as a combined Roman praetorium (commandant's house) and principia (regimental headquarters). There were finds including shards of Samian ware dating from the reign of Nero. [2] [3]
Danebury is an Iron Age hillfort in Hampshire, England, about 19 kilometres (12 mi) north-west of Winchester. The site, covering 5 hectares, was excavated by Barry Cunliffe in the 1970s. Danebury is considered a type-site for hill forts, and was important in developing the understanding of hillforts, as very few others have been so intensively excavated.
Hod Hill is a large hill fort in the Blackmore Vale, 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Blandford Forum, Dorset, England. The fort sits on a 143 m (469 ft) chalk hill of the same name that lies between the adjacent Dorset Downs and Cranborne Chase. The hill fort at Hambledon Hill is just to the north. The name probably comes from Old English "hod", meaning a shelter, though "hod" could also mean "hood", referring to the shape of the hill.
Oldbury Camp is the largest Iron Age hill fort in south-eastern England. It was built in the 1st century BC by Celtic British tribes on a hilltop west of Ightham, Kent, in a strategic location overlooking routes through the Kentish Weald. The fort comprises a bank and ditch enclosing an area of about 50 hectares, with entrances at the north-east and south ends. Wooden gates barred the entrances. Archaeological excavations carried out in the 1930s and 1980s found that the hill fort's interior had probably not been permanently occupied. It had been abandoned around 50 BC and the north-east gate had been burned down, possibly due to a Roman invasion. The wooded southern part of Oldbury Camp is now owned and managed by the National Trust and is open to the public.
Maes Knoll is an Iron Age hill fort in Somerset, England, located at the eastern end of the Dundry Down ridge, south of the city of Bristol and north of the village of Norton Malreward near the eastern side of Dundry Hill. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Blackbury Camp, also known as Blackbury Castle, is an Iron Age hill fort in Devon, England. It is managed by English Heritage.
Ladle Hill is a 10.5-hectare (26-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Kingsclere in Hampshire. It is also a Scheduled Monument.
Scratchbury Camp is the site of an Iron Age univallate hillfort on Scratchbury Hill, overlooking the Wylye valley about 1 km northeast of the village of Norton Bavant in Wiltshire, England. The fort covers an area of 37 acres (15 ha) and occupies the summit of the hill on the edge of Salisbury Plain, with its four-sided shape largely following the natural contours of the hill.
Bury Camp is the site of an Iron Age multivallate hillfort in north-west Wiltshire, England. It occupies a triangular promontory of Colerne Down, in the north of Colerne parish, at the southern edge of the Cotswold Hills between two spurs of a river valley. The enclosed area of approximately 9.2ha is surrounded by a ditch 4m wide and up to 1m deep, and an outer rampart up to 1.5m high on the east and northwestern sides and up to 2m high on the southwestern side, across the neck of the promontory.
Chiselbury is the site of an Iron Age univallate hillfort in Wiltshire, England. The hillfort is sub-circular in plan, and encloses an area of approximately 10.5 acres (460,000 sq ft). It is defined by an earthen rampart up to 3.6 metres (12 ft) in height and an external ditch, up to a maximum of 1.6 metres (5.2 ft) in depth. A gap in the south-eastern side of the rampart, and a corresponding causeway across the ditch, is thought to be the original entrance and is associated with a small 'D' shaped embanked enclosure, which is apparently visible on aerial photographs. Although the enclosure has subsequently been degraded by ploughing, it is still apparent as a series of low earthworks.
Hillforts in Britain refers to the various hillforts within the island of Great Britain. Although the earliest such constructs fitting this description come from the Neolithic British Isles, with a few also dating to later Bronze Age Britain, British hillforts were primarily constructed during the British Iron Age. Some of these were apparently abandoned in the southern areas that were a part of Roman Britain, although at the same time, those areas of northern Britain that remained free from Roman occupation saw an increase in their construction. Some hillforts were reused in the Early Middle Ages, and in some rarer cases, into the Later Medieval period as well. By the early modern period, these had essentially all been abandoned, with many being excavated by archaeologists in the nineteenth century onward.
Coxall Knoll is a hill lying on the boundary of Shropshire and Herefordshire, England; it is near Bucknell in Shropshire and Buckton and Coxall in Herefordshire. On the summit is an Iron Age hillfort, a scheduled monument.
Beacon Hill, also known as Harting Beacon, is a hillfort on the South Downs, in the county of West Sussex in southern England. The hillfort is located in the parish of Elsted and Treyford, in Chichester District. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument with a list entry identification number of 1015915. The hilltop enclosure is dated to the Late Bronze Age, from the 8th to 6th centuries BC. The hillfort defences were renewed during the Late Iron Age.
Holkham Camp, or Holkham Fort, is an Iron Age fort in Norfolk, England, about 1 mile (1.6 km) north-west of the village of Holkham. It is a scheduled monument.
Chalbury Hillfort is an Iron Age hillfort about 1 mile (1.6 km) south-east of the village of Bincombe, in Dorset, England. It is a scheduled monument.
Cadson Bury is an Iron Age hillfort about 2 miles (3.2 km) south-west of Callington, in Cornwall, England.
Bury Walls is an Iron Age hillfort about 1 mile (1.6 km) south-east of Weston-under-Redcastle, in Shropshire, England. It is a scheduled monument.
Hollingbury Castle, also known as Hollingbury Camp and Hollingbury Hillfort, is an Iron Age hillfort on the northern edge of Brighton, in East Sussex, England. It is adjacent to Hollingbury Park Golf Course.
Caer Euni [Grid reference SJ 00027 41266] is an Iron Age hillfort, about 2.5 miles (4 km) north-east of the village of Llandderfel and about 5 miles (8 km) north-east of Bala Lake, in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a scheduled monument.
Thundersbarrow Hill is an archaeological site in West Sussex, England. It is on a chalk ridge, aligned north-west to south-east, on the South Downs north of Shoreham-by-Sea.
Maiden Bower is an Iron Age hillfort near Dunstable in Bedfordshire, England. The site, which also has traces of a Neolithic causewayed enclosure, is a scheduled monument.