More information : (TQ 322 079) Hollingbury Castle (NAT) Hill Fort (NR). (1)
Hollingbury fort, comprising a bank and ditch with traces of a slight counterscrarp bank in the S (See Curwen's plan). Original entrances occur on the E and W sides, the latter being inturned, and there is a modern break on the NW side of the fort. In the interior are four mounds (See TQ 30 NW 18), and on the E side a "lynchet-like slope", extending N-S from rampart to rampart, (TQ 3225 0778 - TQ 3227 0796).
There have been two excavations. The first in 1908 (3) of a rubbish pit (at TQ 3212 0783) revealed Caburn 1 potsherds. The second excavation in 1932 (4) was concerned with the relationship of the "lynchet-like slope' to the main fort, and it was proved that the slope was in fact a slight bank with silted-up ditch to the E, which is overlaid by the main rampart and therefore earlier. It is "fairly certain" that this earlier bank/ditch was originally an enclosure, the N, S and W sides
being overlaid by the later fort. Excavation of the main defences on the NE side and the E entrance revealed the post-holes of a timber-cased rampart with a berm and U-shaped ditch. Modern posts were erected in the post-holes (16 in all). A trial trench across the interior of the fort revealed a palisade trench 80ft W of the earlier bank/ditch, extending for 153 ft N-S parallel with the main defence with an entrance opposite the E entrance. Curwen considered this to be the latest feature of the site. Pottery found is of Caburn 1 type, c 450 BC - 250 BC. (2-4)
Hollingbury Castle, an IA 'A' univallate hillfort, now mostly under rough pasture and gorse, generally as described and planned by Curwen, though the inturning of the N side of the W entrance is mutilated and not surveyable.
Published survey (25") revised. (5)
The earthworks described by the previous authorities can be seen in lidar imagery and have been mapped as part of the Changing Chalk, Downs from Above Project. (7)
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