Cleeve Cloud

Nearest town:
Cheltenham (4km SW)
OS reference:
SO985255
OS sheet:
163
Latitude:
51° 55' 39.19 N
Longitude:
2° 1' 18.54 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Approaching from the southeast, hoping in vain to get a sunset.

Image credit: A. Brookes (12.3.2022)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 1, 2023
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

From the south, with the Three Sisters trees in front of the rampart.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.4.2020)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 27, 2020
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Looking across Cheltenham towards the Cotswold edge, Robinswood Hill and Churchdown Hill.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.4.2020)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 27, 2020
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Looking along the inner rampart towards the summit of Cleeve Hill. Outer rampart on the left.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.4.2020)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 27, 2020
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by juamei

Image Credit: Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015.

Image credit: Open Source Environment Agency LIDAR
juamei
juamei Mar 25, 2018
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by ginger tt

From the south. The ramparts are visible on the right running down to the quarry edge

Image credit: Gingertrailertrash
ginger tt
ginger tt Jun 4, 2013
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Hillforts of the north Cotswolds, seen across Cheltenham from Hartley Hill on a rather hazy day. Battledown is indicated but is not a certain prehistoric site.

Image credit: A. Brookes (20.4.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat May 7, 2013
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Looking out from the fort interior over the Vale of Severn. The square block of Huddlestone’s Table can be seen below, near the centre of the picture.

Image credit: A. Brookes (6.4.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 17, 2013
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The quarried-away western side of the fort, looking over Bishops Cleeve to the distant Malverns (far left skyline).

Image credit: A. Brookes (6.4.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 17, 2013
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The quarry face where the fort interior used to be. The ends of the northern rampart can be seen as the two rounded bumps left of centre in the picture.

Image credit: A. Brookes (28.1.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 31, 2012
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The southern terminus of the ramparts above the quarry face.

Image credit: A. Brookes (28.1.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 31, 2012
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The ends of the quarried away ramparts at the northern end of the fort.

Image credit: A. Brookes (28.1.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 31, 2012
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Looking across the outer rampart, towards the summit of Cleeve Hill.

Image credit: A. Brookes (28.1.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 31, 2012
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

There is a gap through the ramparts at the NNE of the fort. Enterprising golf course designers have thoughtfully inserted a golf green.

Image credit: A. Brookes (28.1.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 31, 2012
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The ends of the ramparts at the north of the fort, before they terminate at the quarry face. Bishop’s Cleeve village can be seen below.

Image credit: A. Brookes (28.1.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 31, 2012
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Approaching the fort from the north, showing the devastating effect of quarrying on the west side.

Image credit: A. Brookes (28.1.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 31, 2012
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Looking south-west(ish) along the ditch between the outer and inner ramparts.

Image credit: A.Brookes (15.9.2006)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 31, 2008
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The approach from the south, ramparts on the horizon. The two trees known as “The Three Sisters” (there used to be three!) are visible to the left of centre.

Image credit: A.Brookes (15.9.2006)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 31, 2008
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The enigmatic block known as Huddlestone’s Table. Cleeve Cloud hillfort’s ramparts and interior lie along the horizon immediately behind the table.

Image credit: A.Brookes (22.12.2008)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 29, 2008
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The southern ramparts, looking west(ish) over the edge of the escarpment into fog.

Image credit: A.Brookes (22.12.2008)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 29, 2008
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The ramparts along the SE edge of the fort, looking eastwards in thick fog (walker for scale)

Image credit: A.Brookes (22.12.2008)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 29, 2008
Image of Cleeve Cloud (Hillfort) by Rebsie

View of Cleeve Hill from the crest of next-door Nottingham Hill. In the centre is the escarpment known as Cleeve Cloud.

Image credit: Rebsie Fairholm 2006
Rebsie
Rebsie Apr 24, 2006

Articles

Cleeve Cloud

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 14, 2013

Cleeve Hill has a wealth of Iron Age remains, as well as some possibly earlier monuments. Unfortunately, much of the hill has been badly damaged by limestone quarrying, to build the pretty Cotswolds villages and towns that so attract the tourists. The northwestern part is particularly badly affected, where the quarries have dug straight into the scarp face of the hill. But there is still enough to see, including a rectilinear enclosure that shows up particularly well in today’s light.

The Ring is a small oval enclosure, set on steeply sloping ground. What function it served is unclear, maybe a stock pen or homestead site. The interior has been flattened into a platform for a now-vanished golf tee, but the surrounding bank and ditch are pretty well preserved and clear. An adjacent mound to the east has been tentatively identified as a hut circle, although there is also a possibility that it was a round barrow. The Cotswold Way passes right next to these two sites, so no excuse for not indulging in a brief re-visit. There is a very fine view of Nottingham Hill fort from here as well.

The path then steepens to approach the northern summit of the hill, which has several separate summits, strung across its mile or so of top. Although not the highest, this one provides the best views, as reflected in a topograph. The Malverns and May Hill are clear today, but the Forest of Dean and Wales beyond are reduced to hazy smudges on the horizon. It’s busy here on such a lovely day, golfers, strollers and runners vying for position. I head south, crossing the remains of the Iron Age cross dyke that encircles this part of the hill, following the contour and largely unaffected by the quarries.

The path now hugs the top of the escarpment, with artificially created cliffs dropping away vertiginously to my right. It’s quite cold up here on the edge, snow still clings to the scarps below me and the wind serves up a reminder that the late winter is only just receding. A number of the benches up here are festooned with brightly coloured ribbons, very similar to what you find at sacred wells across the country. Clearly this hilltop still represents a sacred place for locals. With the views stretching away across the vale below, to the mini-mountain range of the Malverns, it’s not difficult to understand why.

The final prehistoric stop-off of the day is the once-impressive Cleeve Cloud fort. Three lines of defensive banks and ditches cut the interior off from the rest of the hill, but sadly the western half of the fort is gone, another victim of the inexorable need for building stone. To add insult to grievous injury, a golf green has been inserted into the northern ramparts of the fort. Bah.

Despite all of this, it is a fine site still, the defences that remain are substantial and the views are immense. A good spot to stop off for a while and contemplate the route ahead, aided by what’s left of my lunch.

Cleeve Cloud

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 29, 2008

Visited 22.12.2008, walking from Winchcombe via Belas Knap longbarrow and then along the Cotswold Way. This is the second time I have visited Cleeve Hill using this route, but since the last time the Cotswold Way appears to have been re-routed, so from Belas Knap the route now plunges down a steep wooded valley and then back up the other side onto the hill. By the time I reached the hill it was covered in thick fog and rather lacking in recognisable landmarks! Eventually I found the 13th hole of the golf course which rather spoils visits to this site. The golf course covers much of the top of the hill, around the summits – on a summer’s day visitors are advised to watch out for golf balls! Even in thick “pea-soup” fog on a Monday morning after the midwinter solstice, there were golfers (mainly heard rather than seen through the fog). Having said all of that, there is much to appreciate on the hill. At 330m it is the highest point in the Cotswolds. There is a hillfort, an impressive linear bank/ditch dyke, and an earthwork known as The Ring. There are remains of various barrows, but these are very difficult to see (even without the fog). Cleeve Hill can be visited by car if you have one and is also served by a good bus service from Cheltenham or Winchcombe.

The hillfort ramparts (double bank and ditch) are fairly well preserved and now enclose c. 3 acres along the edge of the escarpment. Quarrying has destroyed much of the western/south-western side of the fort (although it has emphasised the sheer drop away from the fort on that side). There are spectactular views towards the Malverns on a non-foggy day.

Taking a path over the edge and down the west, you come across the enigmatic stone block known as “Huddlestone’s Table” (see Folklore for more on this).

Cleeve Cloud

D
Damonm Jan 14, 2003

Visited August 2002. As you approach Cleeve Cloud from Cheltenham the sheer size of the escarpment is amazing. The ridge rises sheer from the Severn Valley floor up to over 300 metres (the highest part of the Cotswold Hills). This is why I have defined it as a sacred hill, there seems to be real reverence for it in the landscape. The sense of peace you have whilst walking round and taking in the view and the landscape is almost to see the world as the ancients saw it. The modern world can try to interfere, note the numbly positioned golf club nearby, but on Cleeve Cloud I felt the atmosphere of a different time.

Folklore

Cleeve Cloud
Hillfort
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 29, 2008

Generally the fort is thought to originally date from the early Iron Age, with the single bank and ditch being doubled in the last couple of centuries BCE.

Huddlestone’s Table (information from “Cleeve Hill: The History of the Common and its People” – David H. Aldred 1990 [Alan Sutton Publishing Limited]):

Traditionally the stone is said to mark the spot where King Kenulf of Mercia took leave of various important guests after the 811 dedication of Winchcombe Abbey. In 1779 an article about the stone appeared in “Gentlemen’s Magazine” linking it in true antiquarian style with Druids and so on.

Sites within 20km of Cleeve Cloud

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