More information : SJ 539 137 Haughmond Hill Camp - Scheduled. (1)
List of Hill Forts with inturned entrances. Haughmond Hill. (2)
Castle Earthwork does not appear to have been completed but is seems
that the area intended to enclose would measure about 230 yds W-E and
130 yds N-S. The earthen rampart is on the NW, S and SE, the rest of
the enclosure being effected by cliff and on the North marsh. The
NE side is open.
The best preserved part of the rampart is on the North near its
termination at swampy ground, where it is 8ft high. The area enclosed
is largely occupied by bare rock.
The date and purpose of the earthwork is not known. (3)
This feature is a univallate Iron Age hillfort which takes advantage
of steep natural slopes in the west, a former marsh in the east and a
basically natural ridge in the north. The southern rempart stops
short of its logical termination at the edge of the former marsh and
it seems likely that it was never completed.
There is an inturned entrance in the south. No trace of a ditch or
occupation was found.
Surveyed at 1/2500 At SJ 5374 1380. (4)
An univallate Iron Age on Haughmond Hill is roughly oval in plan and
measures overall, about 200.0m east-west, by 110.0m transversely.
The west end is bounded by precipitous rocky slopes, which continue
round onto the south but then become less steep, and have been
scarped for 60.0m as far as the original entrance, which is 3.0m
wide, and inturned for 20.0m.
East of the entrance, the site is defended by an earth-and-stone
rampart across the level ground of the hilltop. It is 14.0m in width,
and averages 1.8m in height, but reduces in height and width as
former marshland is reached on the north-east. No defences were
required here, but a 100.0m stretch linking the marsh with the steep,
rocky slopes on the west, was closed with a rampart which
incorporates a natural rock ridge, and is about 14.0m in width, and inheight is 1.0m internally and 4.5m externally.
There is evidence on the north-east that the work was never completed,in that the rampart stops some 20.0m short of the drop to the former
marsh. No traces exist of an outer ditch to the rampart, and no
evidence of occupation was found in the interior.
Published 1:2500 survey correct. (5)
SJ 537 138. Haughmond Cas. Listed in gazetteer as a univallate hillfort covering 1.6ha. (6)
SJ 538 139. Haughmond Hill camp. Scheduled. (7)
From the 24th June 2010 the site has been designated a national Scheduled Monument that includes an 18th century folly and a Spigot Mortar emplacement located on the summit. (8) |