More information : [ST 1602 3912] Dowsborough Camp HILL FORT [GT]
[ST 1590 3917] TUMULUS [GT] (1)
Dowsborough (Danesborough) Camp, Didington, c.340 yds. by 170 yds., the defence is a bank of stones with a ditch and second
rampart below, following the natural line of the hill. The
upper bank has been demolished for some distance along the S.
face from the W. The entrance seems to have been at the apex on
the S.E., but here the banks have been altered and the ditch
partly filled up.
At the N.W. end inside the rampart is a circular tumulus of
stones with flat top but no surrounding ditch.
Plan. See photo AO/63/374/6.
Univallate hillfort (3-15 acres). Scheduled. (2-4)
This is a univallate hillfort with a nearly complete counterscarp bank.
The entrance is at the east end. The wide gap in the ditch is
an original feature, and an amorphous scatter of stones inside
the rampart may indicate that the entrance was more complex
than it now appears to be.
Inside the rampart at the north-west is a ditched bowl barrow.
The mound is 1.2m high and the ditch 0.3m deep.
Re-surveyed at 1:2500. (5)
Additional Bibliography. (6)
A plan and illustration of the hillfort are present together with text. (7)
ST 160 391. Dowsborough. Listed in hillfort as a univallate hillfort covering 2.0ha. (8)
Dowsborough Camp was surveyed at a scale of 1: 1000 by the Exeter Office of EH as part of the archaeological survey of the Quantock Hills AONB. Additional elements include trial pits for stone/copper ore, a charcoal burning platform and evidence of WWII activity. The possiblity of a late Roman/post-Roman phase is discussed in the site report, which contains full details of the survey and a plan (9).
The Iron Age hillfort, Bronze Age barrow and some internal features are partially visible, through trees, on aerial photographs.
(10-12) |