MelMel

I visted little Doward Camp today.
I walked along the rampart which is on the left (with the big hacked up tree on the end of it) when you enter the fort (from Crockers Ash direction) which led to a path that follows the outside of the rampart, and found another rampart and ditch in the woods.
I then walked down the path which goes down the slope where there are no defences. I saw something that I at first thought might be a rampart but was actually rock (which looks like limestone). I walked on the path that goes around the hill; the rock is very high(like a small cliff), and the hill is extremely steep so they act like a natural set of defences.

There are a number of other historic features near the fort, including an iron age causeway, have a look on the Herefordshire Sites and Monuments Record:
smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/hsmr/db.php

Little Doward Camp is a scheduled ancient monument, in a Site of Special Scientific Interest and near Regionally Important Geological Sites.

Ysgyryd means “shivered” or “shattered”. This is due to the hill’s jagged western side, caused by landslips in the ice age.

It’s easy to get to, you can walk to the summit from the car park on the side of the B4521 road from Abergavenny to Ross-on-Wye.

I revisited the fort on the 15th of February 2009. Most of the clearance of the site seems to be finished, so you can get a really good idea of the scale of the place. It’s huge! I’d estimate it’s nearly a quarter of a mile wide. Around some of the edges of the fort are some really steep drops, so be careful.

On one the ramparts there is some kind of mound. I’m really not sure what this is or how old it is. It could be modern.

On the South Eastern edge of the fort there seem to be no defences, so maybe they’re somewhere further down the slope of the hill?

It’s also interesting to note there’s a Roman Settlement at the bottom of the hill in Lord’s Wood..