Castles on the hill

Not always found on hills and not necessarily forts, our thousands of ancient hill forts contain sacrificial burial grounds, buried treasures and a certain strange magic

- Vicky Liddell

ON the ramparts of Barbury Castle in Wiltshire, the past is within touching distance. Here, in about 700BC, Celtic tribesmen would have looked out over the same sweeping downland. A few miles further east, along the ancient Ridgeway, are the hill forts of Liddington Castle and Uffington with its famous chalk horse. These are only a handful of the thousands of similar earthworks scattered over the British Isles, ranging in size from small, single banked enclosures of less than a hectare to vast, multi-ditched giants such as British Camp at the southern end of the Malvern Hills, with its tiered defences resembling an enormous green wedding cake.

The golden age of hill-fort construction took place between 600BC and 400BC and the monuments usually conformed to the shape and ground they occupied. Some were built on earlier Neolithic sites and many incorporate Bronze Age barrows; the earliest hill forts were mostly ‘univallate', with one line of defence. Later, in about 400BC, some of the forts were developed into elaborate 'multivallate' forms, with up to six defensive circuits, whereas others were completely abandoned.

'The golden age of hill-fort construction took place between 600BC and 400BC'

The ramparts and entrances that now appear as earthy mounds were originally highly accomplished engineered structures incorporating box ramparts and timber palisades. Armed with only antler picks and wooden spades, it has been estimated that it would take 150 men about four months to construct a simple eight-acre enclosure with a ditch. Entrances, usually on the east side, would often have had an elaborate gateway, but they were also the most vulnerable area and much ingenuity was used in the design, with blocked-in banks and other diversions.