Location | Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England |
---|---|
Coordinates | 53°48′54″N2°23′15″W / 53.8151°N 2.3875°W |
Type | Hillfort |
Length | 165 m (541 ft) |
Width | 110 m (360 ft) |
Area | c.1.4 ha (3.5 acres) |
Height | 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) |
Site notes | |
Excavation dates | 1957, 1960s, 1970s |
Official name | Portfield hillfort |
Designated | 9 October 1981 |
Reference no. | 1013608 [1] |
Portfield also known as Planes Wood Camp is a late Bronze Age or Iron Age hillfort situated close to the town of Whalley in Lancashire, Northern England. It is thought to have originally been constructed as a univallate structure and then modified into a small multivallate one sometime after.
It is located on a slight promontory overlooking the valley of the River Calder, with the ground falling particularly rapidly to the west. A flat, possibly artificially levelled area measuring approximately 165 by 110 metres (541 by 361 ft), appears to have originally enclosed by a single rampart, with a least one entrance on the northern side. [1] The irregularly-shaped site, with an area a little over 1.4 hectares (3.5 acres), is 120 metres (400 ft) above sea level. The surrounding land slopes fairly steeply on the southeast, and little less so on the northwest sides, while to the northeast the drop is only slight. No evidence remains of a bank on the western side and it could be that the slope here, which is most extreme on the upper 15 metres (50 ft), may have been considered defence enough. [2]
Generally the defences have not survived well, but at the northwest corner where they are best preserved, there is a section of triple bank and ditch up to 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) high, thought to represent later modifications. [1]
Today the site is protected as a scheduled monument, but it was not until 1981. Starting in the 1950s, the Haweswater Aqueduct was constructed through the site. As part of the work, limited archaeological excavation undertaken in 1957, discovered a section of cobbled pavement at the entrance and pottery dated to the second century AD. In 1966, workmen laying an additional pipeline across the hillfort, discovered a hoard of nine Bronze Age artefacts including a gold bracelet and lock ring. Additional small digs in the 1960s and 70s recovered finds dating from the Neolithic period through to Middle Ages. [3] [1]
Planes Wood is an area of woodland on the steep slope to the west. Since at least the 16th century, the name Portfield has been attached to a farm at the northeast edge of the site. The English word 'port' [4] may have been borrowed from the Latin portus, a possible meaning of which is haven or refuge. [5] [2]
Historic England consider Portfield to be a rare example in north west England of a univallate hillfort subsequently modified to become multivallate. [1]
Whalley is a large village and civil parish in the Ribble Valley on the banks of the River Calder in Lancashire, England. It is overlooked by Whalley Nab, a large wooded hill over the river from the village. The population of the civil parish was 2,645 at the census of 2001, and increased to 3,629 at the census of 2011.
The Grianan of Aileach, sometimes anglicised as Greenan Ely or Greenan Fort, is a hillfort atop the 244 metres (801 ft) high Greenan Mountain at Inishowen in County Donegal, Ireland. The main structure is a 19th-century reconstruction of a stone ringfort, thought to have been built by the Northern Uí Néill, in the sixth or seventh century CE; although there is evidence that the site had been in use before the fort was built. It has been identified as the seat of the Kingdom of Ailech and one of the royal sites of Gaelic Ireland. The wall is about 4.5 metres (15 ft) thick and 5 metres (16 ft) high. Inside it has three terraces, which are linked by steps, and two long passages within it. Originally, there would have been buildings inside the ringfort. Just outside it are the remains of a well and a tumulus.
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Castercliff is an Iron Age multivallate hillfort situated close to the towns of Nelson and Colne in Lancashire, Northern England.
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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.
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