<< Our Photo Pages >> Denbury - Hillfort in England in Devon
Submitted by AngieLake on Friday, 03 June 2011 Page Views: 32772
Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: DenburyCountry: England County: Devon Type: Hillfort
Nearest Town: Newton Abbot Nearest Village: Denbury
Map Ref: SX816685 Landranger Map Number: 202
Latitude: 50.504292N Longitude: 3.670966W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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I have visited· I would like to visit
sophiewilder visited on 1st Jan 2008 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 5 Access: 2 Not so much a long walk as a steep one, but certainly worth going to see. The undergrowth has indeed been cleared but there is still a lot of wood, and it is hard to get an impression of the whole place from any one spot. The steep-sided defensive ditch is the most impressive part.
AngieLake have visited here
In her book, 'Prehistoric Hillforts in Devon' (published by Devon Books, official publisher to Devon County Council), Aileen Fox tells us that this wooded hillfort crowns the 150m high end of Denbury Down, a little ridge of Devonian limestone and of volcanic spilite to the west of Denbury village. It is conspicuous on the skyline from many directions in the surrounding undulating countryside.
The hillfort was strongly defended by two close-set ramparts and a deep ditch on the east and south sides. The lines of these diverge to form an outer enclosure on the west side, a later addition perhaps designed as a livestock enclosure. Its low bank is unconsolidated and probably was unfinished. On the north side the defences have been ploughed down leaving a single scarp, and are overlain in part by hedgebanks.
The outer enclosure was entered from the southern slopes through a 10m gap between the offset rampart ends, now complicated by a later drainage ditch. At the main hillfort, the western rampart ends were inturned to form a short defensive passage-way in front of the original wooden gate.
The wooded interior is currently obscured by undergrowth which will be cleared eventually (book published in 1996). In the centre are two large mounds, almost certainly Bronze Age barrows, and likely to cover cremation burials. Their irregular shape is due to ancient ploughing which has also destroyed the back slope of the rampart. No excavation has taken place but early forms of the place name 'Defnasburh' and 'Deveneberie' meaning 'Fort of the Devon People' suggest it was an important place inhabited in post-Roman times as well as in the Iron Age.
Site is owned by Devon County Council. Access by lane and footpath from the bye road leading west from the village. Interpretation panels on the site.
Ref.Book: Probert, S.J. and Dunn, C.J. 'Denbury Camp, Torbryan parish: a new survey by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England', PDAS 50 (1992), 53-60.
Note: On Denbury Down, a short film celebrating the hillfort, showing at the Holmfirth Film Festival. Scroll down the Denbury page to watch it.
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