Blackbury Camp

An Iron Age hillfort with impressive ramparts, now surrounded by woodland.

Blackbury Camp, or Castle, is one of many similar sites across southern Britain dating from the period known as the Iron Age (from about 800 BC to the 1st century AD).

The enclosure at Blackbury is oval in shape, roughly 200 metres (660 feet) long by 100 metres (330 feet) wide. Surrounding it is an impressive rampart, now about 3 metres (10 feet) high and up to 10 metres  (33 feet) wide. This is built from clay and flints quarried from an outer ditch which measures up to12 metres (39 feet) wide.

The single entrance on the south side is defined by large ramparts. It was about 5 metres (16 feet) wide and would originally have been revetted with timber and contained a large gateway with timber gates, possibly set within a timber gate-tower. The ground surface around the entrance was gravelled with pebbles from the stream below, suggesting that heavy use was expected during the wetter months of the year. Three other gaps in the rampart are thought to be more recent features.

The most remarkable feature of Blackbury Camp is the earthwork in front of the entrance, which is triangular in shape, and flanked by a bank and ditch. Settlements of this period usually have additional, outer enclosures, but these are normally arranged in concentric circles around the main one. We do not know whether the outer enclosure at Blackbury was intended to be defensive or whether it had a practical use, perhaps as a holding area for cattle.