Mount Caburn

Also known as:
The Caburn
Nearest town:
Lewes (4km W)
OS reference:
TQ444089
OS sheet:
198
Latitude:
50° 51' 39.46 N
Longitude:
0° 3' 7.31 E
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Mount Caburn (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 Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by A R Cane

View south from the isolated Mount Caburn to the South Downs ridge separated by the River Ouse and Glynde Reach. The dark line in the foreground is the very slight defensive bank of the hill fort’s south side, but at a height of around 150m is barely necessary.

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Jan 6, 2015
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by A R Cane

This strange little earthwork is shown as a tumulus on the OS map sitting on the edge of the outer IA ramparts of The Caburn, but it bares little resemblance to any barrow I’ve ever come across.

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Jan 6, 2015
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by A R Cane

The view from Caburn Bottom to The Bible Earthwork and field systems. Not sure if these are contemporary with the the surrounding sites or possibly medieval.

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Jan 6, 2015
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by A R Cane

The view from the edge of the dreaded Lewes Golf course through Oxteddle and Caburn Bottoms to The Caburn and Ranscombe Camp.

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Jan 6, 2015
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

The far slighter defences to the south... but then, look at that hillside.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 2, 2011
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Mount Caburn from the rampart of Ranscombe Camp to the approx west.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 2, 2011
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Looking across a round barrow to the hillfort

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 2, 2011
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

The round barrow a little way to the north of the enclosure.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 2, 2011
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Looking approx eastwards towards Glynde. The very steep slope perhaps explains why overwhelming consideration was given to the defences of the northern arc.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 2, 2011
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

The powerful ditch to west.... note Ranscombe Camp, beyond.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 2, 2011
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Impressive multi-vallate defences face the only practical direction of approach. Ranscombe Camp’s mightly rampart can be seen beyond, top right.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 2, 2011
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by Jonnee23

180 degree view from the outer earthworks on Mount Caburn

Image credit: copyright_Soundnet Associates 2006
Jonnee23
Jonnee23 Oct 4, 2006
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by Jonnee23

View of Mount Caburn from Ranscombe Camp

Image credit: copyright_Soundnet Associates 2006
Jonnee23
Jonnee23 Oct 4, 2006
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by Jonnee23

Panorama view approaching Mount Caburn... with Windover Hill and Firle Beacon to the left of picture – Mount Caburn enclosure – and Ranscombe Camp to the right.

Image credit: copyright_Soundnet Associates 2006
Jonnee23
Jonnee23 Oct 4, 2006
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by Jonnee23

sheep nibbling away around the barrow located nearest to Mount Caburn: grid ref TQ445092. Firle Beacon and Windover Hill in the distance!

Jonnee23
Jonnee23 Oct 4, 2006
Image of Mount Caburn (Hillfort) by Cursuswalker

The west ditch of Mount Caburn from the northern entrance. 26/2/06

Image credit: Cursuswalker
Cursuswalker
Cursuswalker Mar 3, 2006

Articles

Mount Caburn

thelonious
thelonious Mar 26, 2016

18/03/2016 – Walking over from Alfriston to Lewes we had only one chance for a coffee shop and that was when we passed through Glynde. Our luck was in as the Little Cottage Tea Rooms is located just across the road from the footpath up to Mount Caburn. Refuelled on coffee and carrot cake, we made the short but steepish climb up to the hillfort. I’d seen the hillfort from the train the day before and it had looked a good one. Crossing over the defences, we made our way over to the bench on the south side for a sit. This really is a nice hillfort and well worth a visit. The location and view is very good. We headed north to Cliffe Hill and then down into Lewes. There looks to be quite a few good walks round here that take in the hillfort. Top area.

Mount Caburn

Cursuswalker
Cursuswalker Mar 5, 2006

Mount Caburn means a lot to many people in the town of Lewes I think.
It was the nearest settlement of any size to the site that Lewes was eventually founded on by the Saxons and can be seen from much of the town.

The skyline of the hill from the town means that the ditch and bank of the fort seems to cut it off from the rest of the ridge on which it stands. The hill the fort was built upon is fairly distinctive anyway, being a dome with broad slopes sweeping down from it to the south, while it seems almost to be the head of a giant downland animal, the rest of the downland ridge that it forms part of trailing behind the hill to the north. This ridge is the only block of the South Downs that is not a part of the main ridge along which the South Downs Way runs, having been cut off from it by the Glynde Reach river, that you will see joining the river Ouse to the south west.

When you approach the fort from the north the ditch and bank are very prominent, but the part of the hill still inside the fort protrudes above it still, giving an impression of a round hat, or, one might say, a flattened Dalek’s head!

Once inside the fort one seems simply to be on a hill, as the whole ditch and bank becomes far less obvious. This is particularly true on the southern side, where the defences are far less spectacular. I have always been told this is because on this side any attacker would have had quite a climb first. I’m not entirely convinced though, as this does not take account of attackers circling from the northern side. For me, the steep hill suggests some erosion of the defences on this side, though I have no evidence for this either way.

In any case the view is very impressive for a hill that is not actually that high (150m above sea-level), particularly of the downland ridge to the south. Firle Beacon and Windover Hill, home to the Long Man of Wilmington, can also be seen to the south east.

Folklore

Mount Caburn
Hillfort
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Nov 28, 2006

If you make seven circles of Mount Caburn the Devil will jump out at you – according to a local chap this tale was seriously believed c.1914 when he was a boy.

Apparently cited in a letter to? Jacqueline Simpson in 1973, and mentioned in a footnote in
Circling as an Entrance to the Otherworld
Samuel Pyeatt Menefee
Folklore, Vol. 96, No. 1. (1985), pp. 3-20.

Folklore

Mount Caburn
Hillfort
pure joy
pure joy Mar 21, 2003

An Iron Age hillfort crowns this hill, traditionally formed from a clod of earth thrown here by the Devil while feverishly digging out the Devil’s Dyke. Another legend says that a giant called Gill who reputedly lived on the Downs would throw his hammer from the summit of the Caburn. Somewhere in the hill a silver coffin and a knight in golden armour are said to be buried.

Topics

Hillfort, Ritual Site or both? 3
P
Percuinion
May 2016

Sites within 20km of Mount Caburn

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