A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roman period. The fortification usually follows the contours of a hill and consists of one or more lines of earthworks, with stockades or defensive walls, and external ditches. Hillforts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, roughly the start of the first millennium BC, and were used in many Celtic areas of central and western Europe until the Roman conquest.
Whitsbury is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, close to Fordingbridge. Whitsbury is a part of a group of villages on the edge of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Kelsborrow Castle is an Iron Age hill fort in Cheshire, northern England. Hill forts were fortified hill-top settlements constructed across Britain during the Iron Age. It is one of only seven hill forts in the county of Cheshire and was probably in use for only a short time. In the 19th century, a bronze palstave was recovered from the site. It is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Bartinney Castle is an Iron Age enclosure located in the Penwith Peninsula of Southwest Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, it is surrounded by a circular earthwork standing on a hill surrounded by various archaeological prehistoric remains, including ancient settlements, field systems, tumuli and cairns.
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.
Woodhouse hill fort is an Iron Age hillfort between Frodsham and Helsby in Cheshire, England. It lies at the northern end of the Mid Cheshire Ridge. Woodhouse Hill has steep cliffs on the western sides, providing a natural defence. It is defended by a rampart to the north and east where the ground slopes more gently. Excavations in 1951 showed that the rampart was originally 4m high and revetted with stone on both sides. A number of small rounded stones, believed to be slingstones, have been found on the site. The hill fort is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Bury Hill is the site of a former Iron Age hillfort about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southwest of the centre of Andover, Hampshire. The site encloses about 22 acres (8.9 ha). There are evident two stages to the construction of the fort, the first is a low single rampart and ditch, to the north and west of the second, stronger double rampart and ditch earthworks, part of which overlies the earlier work. The banks and the ditch are apparently in good condition, although fairly heavily wooded. A footpath encircles the hill fort on the inner rampart, accessible from the northeast and southwest. The centre is left to grass and very secluded, but is not accessible to the general public. The site was used well into the Roman era and was used as a camp by King Canute in 1016, when he fought Edmund Ironside in the Battle of Andover.
Castle Hill is the site of an Iron Age univailate hillfort located in the civil parish of Burley in the New Forest national park in Hampshire, England. Its single rampart and ditch earthworks enclose approximately five acres of land and is in reasonable condition for the most part, although it is cut through by tracks leading to local houses. Parts of the interior are marshy and much of it is overgrown with oak, silver birch, holly and bracken. The bank is at its highest on the eastern side, as the west side slopes steeply away. Hampshire treasures lists the site as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. According to legend, the hill apparently was once the home to a local dragon, duly slain by a knight from the nearby village of Brook; and thus the local pub at Brook bears the name of the Green Dragon.
Gorley Hill is the site of a former Iron Age promontory hillfort located in Hampshire in the United Kingdom.
Knoll Camp, or Damerham Knoll, is the site of an Iron Age univallate hill fort located in Hampshire. The fort comprises a circular earthwork containing about four acres. There is a single ditch with inner rampart and traces of counter scarp bank. The site is a scheduled ancient monument no.118. Grim's Ditch also runs throughout this area. The footpath/bridleway from the nearby long barrows of Grans Barrow and Knap Barrow runs southeast along the ridge through the centre of the hill fort, leaving through the original SE entrance, and you could easily miss the ditch and bank as you cross it. The interior is thickly wooded and brambled.
Norsebury Ring is the site of an Iron Age univallate hillfort located in Hampshire. Now mostly ploughed out to the South and east, some ditches and ramparts remain within a small copsed area to the North and west, which are surprisingly intact with a small outer ditch, then a bank, then another larger ditch followed by larger bank. However the trees and undergrowth hide the earthworks from immediate view.
Tidbury Ring is the site of an Iron Age univallate hillfort located in Hampshire. The earthworks have been heavily destroyed by ploughing, but some sections to the south remain in better condition. The entrance lies to the southeast of the fort. The interior is for the most part farmland with the earthworks now covered by small trees and undergrowth Two Roman buildings, possibly a courtyard villa complex were found within the hill-fort. The site is now listed as a scheduled ancient monument no.87
Woolbury, or Woolbury Ring, is the site of an Iron Age univallate hill fort on Stockbridge Down, Hampshire, England.
Bussock Camp is the site of an Iron Age bivallate hillfort located in Berkshire, England. It has a double bank and ditch to the south and east, with only a single bank remaining the north and western sides. The entrance is to the north of the site and is believed to be original, and the site encloses approximately 11 acres.
Perborough Castle is the site of an Iron Age univallate hillfort located at Compton in Berkshire. The site covers approximately 14 acres (5.7 ha), and lies on the chalky downs of West Berkshire. Archaeological evidence, from excavations in 1838, suggest that it was a lightly defended and perhaps a seasonally occupied site, containing no more than a few grain storage pits and slag pits, the extent of these being the obvious sign of continued occupation.
Battlesbury Camp is the site of an Iron Age bivallate hill fort on Battlesbury Hill near the town of Warminster in Wiltshire, South West England. Excavations and surveys at the site have uncovered various finds and archaeological evidence.
Bincknoll Castle, or Bincknoll Camp, is the site of a possible Iron Age univallate hillfort located in Wiltshire. The site lies on the end of a triangular promontory on the escarpment beneath the Ridgeway to the South. The steeply contoured sides offer excellent natural defences with only the level lands to the south offering easy access. The suggestion that the site originates in the Iron Age is currently unproven. Pottery found on site has been Roman or later in date. Geophysical fieldwork is planned in the near future,(date?) hopefully that will inform the debate about the castle's chronology. Pronounced 'Bynol' Castle, the current earthworks appear to demonstrate a Norman motte and bailey castle of considerable natural strength. It is likely that Gilbert of Breteuil, after the Norman conquest, acquired a block of manors centred on Broad Hinton and built the castle to oversee them. The 'motte', now severely mutilated by later quarrying, measures approximately 52 metres in diameter by 3 metres high, and its ditch is 2.3 metres deep. The inner enclosure has a bank and ditch 3.4 metres high dividing it from the outer enclosure, with a causeway entrance. The earthworks of the now deserted hamlet of Bincknoll, which grew up outside the castle, may be discerned in Bincknoll Dip, sloping away to the north.
Castle Ditches is the site of an Iron Age trivallate hillfort in the southeast of Tisbury parish in Wiltshire, England.
King's Castle is a Neolithic hillfort 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) east of Wiveliscombe in Somerset, England. It is surrounded by two banks with a ditch between them. The inner wall ranges up to 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) high and the outer wall gets up to 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) high. Arrowheads, scrapers, and borers have been found at the site. A coin hoard of 1139 coins was found in a pot buried 0.30 metres (1 ft) deep.
