Trendle Ring

Also known as:
Monument No. 189562
Nearest town:
Williton (4km W)
OS reference:
ST118393
OS sheet:
181
Latitude:
51° 8' 44.13 N
Longitude:
3° 15' 39.77 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Trendle Ring (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Looking down on Short Combe, which provided our route up, from the southeastern part of the rampart.

Image credit: A. Brookes (3.11.2018)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 2, 2019
Image of Trendle Ring (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The northern rampart. The village below is Bicknoller, where we walked up from.

Image credit: A. Brookes (3.11.2018)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 2, 2019
Image of Trendle Ring (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Looking along the rampart, showing the steepness of the hillside. This can’t have been intended as a defensible site, the hillside above would favour an attacker. Presumably a domestic or stock control function is more likely.

Image credit: A. Brookes (3.11.2018)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 2, 2019
Image of Trendle Ring (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Looking across the northeastern rampart. The eastern edge of Exmoor is on the left skyline, Selworthy Beacon and the coast near Minehead are to the right.

Image credit: A. Brookes (3.11.2018)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 2, 2019

Articles

Folklore

Trendle Ring
Hillfort
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Aug 2, 2005

This univallate hill fort dates from the late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age. Can it really be a fort? It looks so precarious on the map, crossing a thicket of contour lines. Naturally well defended at least. (see details on MAGIC at
magic.gov.uk/rsm/24008.pdf

‘Trendle’ (like the Trundle, one assumes) comes from the Middle English for ‘wheel’, which in turn comes from the Old English for ‘circle’ – indeed, the shape of the fort.

It’s said that here on Bicknoller hill ‘the woman of the mist’ can be seen (apparently, according to Ruth Tongue in ‘Somerset Folklore’ 1965, ‘in recent years’). She sounds rather like the Scottish Cailleach (see Schiehallion) as “she herds the red deer. Sometimes she appears as an old frail crone, sometimes as a great misty figure.”

Miscellaneous

Trendle Ring
Hillfort
Chance
Chance Apr 10, 2016

Details of enclosure on Pastscape

Possible Iron Age enclosure situated on a steep west facing slope of Bicknoller Hill. It is defined by a bank which encloses a sub-circular area measuring 97m by 87m. The enclosure is morphologically similar to the so called “hill-slope” enclosures common on Exmoor. The function of the enclosure is unclear as the steepness of the slope suggests it would be impractical as a settlement or even as a stock enclosure. Although it has a substantial rampart it is not in a particularly defendable topographical situation but it is highly visible and impressive when viewed from the valley below. A possible cross-ridge a dyke situated to the north east of the enclosure may be an associated feature although there is no actual evidence for this.

Sites within 20km of Trendle Ring

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