A univallate hillfort covering 15.5 acres with entrances on E and W. Excavation in 1924 by Maud Cunnington revealed horn work at the east entrance. The bank had been strengthened. She interpreted the site as one of periodic use, and wrote that excavation at five different points showed the inner ditch to be of quite different character from the outer one. It was very irregularly cut with a wide flat bottom, whereas the outer ditch was well cut and almost V-shaped. Humps or promontories of unexcavated chalk were left in the inner ditch, onetimes on one side, sometimes on the other, forming occasional bridges across it.

A small number of animal bones, mostly of sheep, oxen, pig, horse and dog, were located in the inner ditch along with less than 60 pottery fragments. The pottery was considered at the time to be early Iron Age(although See SU13SE107 and 153). Human bone was recovered from the inner ditch ‘found scattered promiscuously with the animal bones’.

Location

OS map reference: SU 1881 3380. Nearest town/village: Winterbourne Dauntsey.

Information © Wiltshire County Council.