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) |