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England
Eggardon HillHillfort
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9 posts
Eggardon Barrows Barrow Cemetery |
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Tremendously impressive ditches and banks on this large site, unfortunately, as others have mentioned, you do need decent weather up here. We were greeted by a ferocious gale which made exploring the site very difficult and one wonders how the original inhabitants dealt with inclement weather. Any future research and/or excavation here should be very interesting indeed, if, as noted, much of the site has never been ploughed. Access Small layby to the SE. Short level walk to entrance, gate, modest slope to interior. |
Posted by jimit2nd October 2008ce Edited 2nd October 2008ce |
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Like views? Like hillforts? You'll love Eggardon Hill. After a very wet & very foggy w/e in Askerswell, the weather cleared just in time for me to drag the missus up here on the sunday morning. Amazing views to the North, South and West, its one of the few places in Dorset where you really feel "up high". As a fort it is highly impressive, not quite so as Maiden Castle but almost certainly the second best in this area, and defn. worth a visit for the ramparts alone. A fence runs straight through the middle of this fort which kinda spoils the effect but you can access the entirity, once you find that elusive gate to the second side. On your way in (or out) have a quick look at what I took to be a guard post to the east of the fort, next to what we used as a carpark... |
Posted by juamei7th November 2002ce |
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The hill-top at Eggardon is crowned with the impressive ramparts and ditches of one of Dorset's best preserved hill-forts. Dating from the Iron Age over 2,000 years ago, this fort has not been excavated in modern times and much of its archaeology remains hidden. The fort covers nearly 40 acres of the hill-top, its defences following the hill-slope on three sides and dramatically cutting off the fourth. Half of the interior seems never to have been ploughed. |
Posted by phil 2nd January 2002ce Edited 27th June 2007ce |
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on our holidays in deepest dorset we came from beaminster, choosing one of the loveliest little roads we have ever seen: eastwards from beaminster via mapperton and (don't miss the tiny road!)west milton to powerstock - an then alongside eggardun: what an experience to have one of the most beautiful parts of dorset on your left and the mighty hill on your right. parked our car on the top of the and wandered lonely as a cloud towards eggardun. magificent, sublime is the view from here: you can guess the sea in the south an marshwood vale in the west. very quiet up there, except for the wind that takes the outer life away - even more quiet, if you disappear in one of the huge ditches. were i forced to live my furher life as a cow, i would prefer to live between the cows grazing on eggardun hill. just visit eggardun - surely one of the most impressive places in southern england where we ever have been. |
Posted by roderich 5th September 2001ce |
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EGGARDUN - Visited 20/4/00 We arrived at the fort with it shrouded with fog. After dicing with death along the narrow road encircling it, we parked and headed up to the top. With the fog blocking the view all around, we contented ourselves with exploring the fort itself and located a strange octagonal feature shown on aerial photographs...a henge, an enclosure...who knows..? |
Posted by Rob Gillespie15th January 2001ce |
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| Even people who've known the hill all their lives can find it has a strange and unpleasant atmosphere sometimes. Harry Poole's account is at the Dorset Books website. There's plenty of reading between the lines that needs to be done. |
Posted by Rhiannon17th July 2010ce Edited 17th July 2010ce |
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Perhaps this is the tale Purejoy hints at below. It was described by Edward Waring in his 1977 'Ghosts and Legends of the Dorset Countryside'. A farmer was out on the hill late one night, when he heard in the distance the sound of a huntsman's horn, and the baying of a pack of hounds. Looking across he saw 'the form of a man running for dear life' through a hedge and ditch. The hounds appeared next, 'urged on by a tall black figure striding at an unearthly pace, with sparks of fire flashing from his boots'. They seized their quarry before he got down into the valley and the farmer realized that what he had seen 'must be the Devil tormenting a lost soul'. Nice turns of phrase. Quoted by Westwood and Simpson in their 2005 'Lore of the Land'. |
Posted by Rhiannon 24th February 2006ce Edited 24th February 2006ce |
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This weird story is described in 'The Secret Country' by J and C Bord. One evening in September 1974, Michael Byatt (a registered gliding instructor and senior NCO in the Air Training Corps) was driving his car up over Eggardon. Suddenly the engine began to lose power, and the headlights dimmed. He and his passenger became intensely cold and 'felt an eerie presence'. In the sky they saw a yellow-blue [sic] light 'in the form of an eclipse' [sic - an elipse?]. It moved slowly backwards and forwards and 'had a sort of glow about it'. A couple of years earlier three cars climbing the hill at night had simultaneously stopped suddenly; they had no power and no lights, but these returned after a short time. Ooh sounds like your typical UFO incident.. or dodgy alternators. |
Posted by Rhiannon 15th July 2004ce |
| A man was supposed to have been chased by the Devil across this Iron Age hillfort. I've also read about the Diana one mentioned below. |
Posted by pure joy19th March 2003ce |
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It is said that Diana the Moon Goddess, leads a ghostly hunt of fairies, demons and witches over the summit of the ancient hillfort collecting the souls of the dead. http://www.darkdorset.co.uk |
Posted by Mizmaze 1st October 2002ce |
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local saying… "As old as Eggardon" |
Posted by phil 30th August 2002ce |
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| The hexagonal mark noted in Rob Gillespie's fieldnotes is reckoned to be the mark left by a plantation of trees . These were supposedly planted by the owner at the time , who was a naval captain , he is said to have used them as landmark to be seen from the sea . Sounds a bit dodgy to me , but not completely barking mad. |
Posted by formicaant23rd April 2007ce Edited 23rd April 2007ce |
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The National Trust booklet 'The Cerne Giant & Dorset Hill-Forts' (2000) which is definately available at the Kingston Lacy house and might be available at other Dorset properties, gives the following directions to the hill fort at Eggardon Hill, "From Dorchester take the main road west (A35) towards Bridport......At first the Bridport road follows the Roman road and is characteristically straight. After 5km the main road leaves the old route and drops down into the village of Winterbourne Abbas. The Roman road still exists as a minor road cutting across the downland towards the ancient landmark of Eggardon. Take this quiet road. After 5km the ramparts of the hill-fort are visible at a crossroads. Turn left here towards Askerwell and drive for 200m. Park in the lay-by on the left. Cross the road and take the footpath towards the southern ramparts". It adds that the name 'Eggardon' is an Old English place name, the hill or down belonging to a man called Eohhere. The earliest documented reference to the place name dates from the Domesday Book in 1086. |
Posted by pure joy 12th April 2004ce |
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Van Rhijn Aerial PhotographyA really nice, big aerial photo of Eggardon. |
Posted by formicaant 22nd May 2007ce Edited 22nd May 2007ce |
Latest posts for Eggardon Hill |
Eggardon Barrows (Barrow Cemetery) — Images (click to view fullsize) |
 
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Posted by formicaant 26th May 2009ce |
Eggardon Barrows (Barrow Cemetery) — Fieldnotes |
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This is a group of five barrows to the north east of Eggardon hillfort. Four of the five are loosely surrounding a large disc barrow, it has openings in the outer bank. Grinsell suggests it could be a form of henge or a disc barrow with some hengelike features. One of the round barrows impinges on the bank and is presumably later. The southern most barrow has a trig point on it and is immediately east of the hillfort. Given that these sites are bronze age and in the case of the disc barrow/possible henge, neolithic they pre date the hillfort in it's current form. |
Posted by formicaant 13th February 2008ce |
Eggardon Barrows (Barrow Cemetery) — Images |
     
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Posted by formicaant 13th February 2008ce |
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