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<< Our Photo Pages >> Figsbury Rings - Hillfort in England in Wiltshire

Submitted by Thorgrim on Sunday, 07 March 2004  Page Views: 15051

Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: Figsbury Rings Alternative Name: Chlorus' Camp
Country: England County: Wiltshire Type: Hillfort
Nearest Town: Salisbury
Map Ref: SU18833382  Landranger Map Number: 184
Latitude: 51.103375N  Longitude: 1.732438W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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I have visited· I would like to visit

FrothNinja visited on 1st Oct 2016 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 4

graemefield visited on 6th Aug 2012 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 5

coin visited - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4

attlebax AngieLake JimChampion have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.33 Ambience: 4 Access: 4.33

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by JimChampion : January 2005. Looking at the NE section of the ramparts from within the rings. The highest portion of the rampart is visible behind the ash trees growing in the inner ditch. These are the only significant trees within the rings, which are now grazed to conserve the chalk grassland habitat. The red flag is a warning that the neighbouring MOD range is in use. From the ring you get an amazing view of... (Vote or comment on this photo)
This is a strange place. A circular fort high on a hilltop with fantastic views. It has the outer bank and ditch separated by a wide space from an inner ditch. Why have an inner ditch in a fortification? It is almost as if it is a fort and henge combined.


Access Well-signposted from the A30, to the east of Salisbury. Drive up the narrow bumpy track to a generous car park. The track is unsuitable for coaches, and long vehicles might have trouble with the sharp right-turn into the car park at the top of the track.
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Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by davidmorgan : The east entrance through the inner ditch. Photo by Archie. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by davidmorgan : In the foreground the western entrance, and in the background the southern gap cut through the outer bank in the 18th century CE. The inner ditch is on the left. Photo by Archie. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by Thorgrim : This is a very strange place. A circular fort high on a hilltop with fantastic views. It has the outer bank and ditch separated by a wide space from an inner ditch. Why have an inner ditch in a fortification? It is almost as if it is a fort and henge combined. Well sign-posted from the A30. Drive up the deeply rutted track to a generous car park. SU188338 (4 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by graemefield : The inside of Figsbury Rings hillfort (Vote or comment on this photo)

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by graemefield : Panoramic photo of one of the entrances to Figsbury Rings (Vote or comment on this photo)

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by graemefield : Panoramic picture of the inner ditches of Figsbury Rings

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by graemefield : Panoramic photo of Figsbury Rings

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by Bladup : Figsbury Rings, After Sunrise at Midwinter

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by Bladup : Looking North over part of Figsbury Rings.

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by Bladup : Figsbury Rings.

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by Bladup : A big wide ditch at Figsbury Rings.

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by AngieLake : The view across the central area from the bank of Figsbury Rings, towards Salisbury Cathedral's spire (hard to spot in this shot). A herd of cattle occupying the middle of the monument kept us from exploring there!

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by AngieLake : I'm guessing this was the view looking approx NW [L] to N [R] from the top of the bank. The inner ditch and 'arena' area are extreme left. The monument commands extensive views over the countryside. [A dull mid-day on Solstice Eve!]

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by AngieLake : The outer banks of Figsbury Rings, nearest the entrance gate. 20.06.2012

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by AngieLake : Standing on the outer banks gives a good view of the nearest causeway leading over a second circle of ditches into the inner 'arena'. We'd have walked into this area if a herd of mean-looking cattle hadn't suddenly entered it from the opposite gateway!

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by AngieLake : Approaching the first causeway and the outer banks of the monument. 'Steps' lined with wire netting have been cut into the chalk to help climb up and down these.

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by AngieLake : Entrance gate with National Trust sign, and banks of henge.

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by AngieLake : Approaching the entrance gate to Figsbury Rings. There's a very ample car park, but to get there you need to drive up quite a long, and very rocky, single-track lane crossed at regular intervals by drainage troughs.

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by attlebax : Figsbury Rings. View along bank. Taken Sept 2007. Very large site.

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by AngieLake : I don't think the late John Michell would begrudge us the sight of this photo [credited to 'Cambridge University collection'] on page 81 of 'A Little History of Astro-Archaeology', 2001 edition, Thames & Hudson. Thom's plan shows a mound which would have been visible from Stonehenge as a mark of a southern extreme of the moon. (4 comments)

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by JimChampion : One of the horse chestnut trees growing in the inner ditch at Figsbury Rings, on a very cold and foggy winter afternoon.

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by JimChampion : The two horse chestnut trees growing in the inner ditch, viewed from the north-east part of the rampart. Visibility was so poor that one side of the Rings could not be seen from the other.

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by JimChampion : The southern entrance to Figsbury Rings, from the rampart. Viewed on a cold and foggy winter's afternoon.

Figsbury Rings
Figsbury Rings submitted by JimChampion : The eastern entrance to Figsbury Rings, from the rampart. Viewed on a very cold and foggy winter afternoon. The gate and path to the car park is off to the right.

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"Figsbury Rings" | Login/Create an Account | 5 News and Comments
  
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Street View by coldrum on Friday, 26 March 2010
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Re: Figsbury Rings by JimChampion on Saturday, 16 December 2006
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From The Ancient History of Wiltshire by Sir Richard Colt Hoare (published 1812) p217-218:


CHLORUS'S CAMP, but in Mr Aubrey's Monumenta Britannica, as well as in Mr Camden's Britannia, it is noticed under the title of FRIPSBURY. What the origin of the latter name is, I am at a loss to conjecture. The former may be derived from the British Genearl CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS, to whom, perhaps, the construction of this camp may be attributed. In Kennet's Parochical Antiquities, I find this earthen work alluded to, and some history given of its supposed founder. "After the death of Carausius, in the year 297, the Emperors Dioclesian and Maximian succeeded to the government of the empire, and in order to withstand the rebellions that broke out in divers parts of it, elected Galerius Maximus and Constantius Chlorus as their generals. The latter having defeated the usurper Allectus, got a good footing in Britain, and a good governor he was, and some forwards up on the downs as far as New Sarum, where, upon the side of the downs he built a fortification, the rampers wheror still appear very apparently, and is called CHLOREN, after the name that the Britons gave him, be reason of his long train carried up after him; it standeth in Wiltshire, upon the north corner of CHLORENDON Park, now called Clarendon, which taketh his name thereof;

...

The situation of this camp is delightful and the prospect from it pleasing and extensive. Its form is circular, and the area comprehends nearly fifteen acres; the circuit of the ditch is four furlong 198 yards , and the height of the vallum 46 feet; the principal entrance lies towards the east, where there are some slight traces of an outwork; it had an exit on the opposite side towards the west. One peculiarity attends to this earthen work, and which must immediately arrest the attention of every eye accustomed to view the ancient specimens of castrametation. I allude to a deep and irregular ditch within the area of the camp, which forms a circle within a circle, and appears to have been excavated for the purpose of procuring materials to raise the vallum of the outward ramparts; for it is evident at first sight, that a large supply of soil has been brought here for that purpose. Dr Stukeley, in his Itinerarium Curiosum, has given a rude sketch of this camp and at page 138 has noticed also this ditch within the area of the camp, which he supposes was once "a lesser camp, but enlarged by CHLORUS, by removing the earth of the inner vallum to the outward, or new circumvallation;" but I am rather inclined to think, that there originally was no inner camp, but the ditch was merely excavated for materials to raise the ramparts of the camp.


Engraving of the camp's plan, from Wiltshire County Council website.
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Re: Figsbury Rings by JimChampion on Sunday, 23 January 2005
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The National Trust information board at the site (which is now only just readable) says:

Figsbury rings was built during the Iron Age, about 500 B.C. as a defence in times of emergency. Its strategic siting is on a promontory of chalk downs, 150 metres above sea level. The outer bank may have had a palisading or perhaps some other defensive superstructure, but no evidence for this is known.

The position of the inner ditch is curious; it was probably never part of the defences, but as a quarry, provided material for the construction of the bank. The outer defensive ditch does not appear to be deep enough to have provided all the chalk rubble for the bank. However, the internal quarry ditches are usually dug immediately behind the banks of such forts; so this one may have served some additional and now unknown function. The fort has two entrances, at the east and the west; that at the east has an additional low bank and ditch to afford it better protection. These entrances would probably have had gates and guardrooms, perhaps even guard towers, as the gates are often the most vulnerable part of a defence.

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Re: Figsbury Rings by Thorgrim on Sunday, 07 March 2004
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Condition:5
Ambience:5
Access:5
The track from the A30 is intimidating as it goes past private houses and is deeply rutted. Just drive up to the large car park at the top. Observe the dire MOD warnings and follow the short NT path to the hillfort and the fantastic views.
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    Re: Figsbury Rings by JimChampion on Sunday, 23 January 2005
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    The access track from the A30 was awful today (very wide and very deep puddles) and the car park was deeply rutted too. The concrete strips set across the track to prevent water erosion are becoming steps. This is in contrast to the site itself which is in very good condition, albeit highly baffling.
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