formicaant

This cemetery grouping of several round barrows sits on a ridge that runs for many miles and is covered in barrows . A walk along the footpath to the southeast of about 2 miles (Bronkham hill) will take you past about twenty barrows of various sizes. This Blackdown is just below the monument to captain Thomas Hardy of Nelson fame and not to be confused with the nearby poor lot cemetery in the Winterbourne valley which is also deeply unhelpfully named as Blackdown on o.s. maps. There are at least two barrows in the nearby woodland, but I’ve yet to find them, must try harder.

Probably the most accessible Dorset hillfort , you don’t have to climb a great height or park miles away from it. It’s a quite simple, roughly square shape with double ditches and banks on its southern and western sides . Inside the enclosure there is a single bronze age round barrow and hut circle marks which have been excavated . To the east of it on lower ground a grave yard of at least a thousand burials ranging from pre-Roman to c.400 c.e. has been extensively investigated. Below the northern rampart the ditch of a Roman aqueduct can still be seen, close to the end of its 7 mile length. Maiden castle can be clearly seen to the south west. It would be wise to visit this site fairly soon as the duchy of Cornwalls’ erroneously named Poundbury village , a suburb of Dorchester, is fast encroaching on this ancient place.

A medium sized, high durotrigian hillfort, from which a great view of the nearby Pilsdon pen can be seen. It is now quite heavily wooded, there are several oddly shaped mounds in its interior, these are now known to be post Norman rabbit warrens. Its banks and ditches are not as well developed as Pilsdon or Coneys castle.

This is a really nice medium sized hillfort. It’s on the western border of the Durotriges and the Dumnonii , of the three hillforts in the immediate area ( Pilsdon pen and Lamberts castle ) it is nearest the sea. Unfortunately it is split along its length by a single track road , which looking at the age of the trees along its edges and its depth below the level of the hillfort has run through it for many,many years. The banks and ditches are in good order and are double on the north, east and southern sides , the west side only needs one small bank as it drops steeply into the valley below. Golden cap can be clearly seen on the coast to the south as it can be from the other hillforts mentioned above.

You really have to want to see this hillfort, it’s quite a climb, but utterly worth the effort. It’s a large multivallate Durotrigian hillfort, which being built on the highest hill in Dorset is an obvious site for a defensive position. The 360 degree panorama affords views of nearby Lamberts castle, Coneys castle,Lewesdon Hill and the more distant Abbotsbury castle. Today I can see Portland which is about 35 miles away , the last time I was here visibility was about 35 feet.

A beautiful sunny afternoon in winter (12/03/2007).This high Dorset hillfort is populated by myself , one other person and about thirty sheep.This is about the tenth time I have visited this remote hillfort , I am always amazed at the views , about thirty miles north,west and south. It’s strategic position in the landscape is as obvious now as it must have been in the iron age.It’s a medium sized (in Dorset terms) mutivallate typical Durotrigian fort roughly triangular in shape.It is split into two halves by a fence, the southern half looks like it may have been ploughed at some stage.