Firstly, Dane’s Dykes isn’t Danish. Bronze Age arrow heads were found (Pitt Rivers), and it possibly started as part of the agricultural boundaries of that time. It is a 2.5 mile 4km earthwork forming a large 5 square mile promontary defendable area, probably built up in the Iron Age about 1000 BC. The V shaped cross-section of the main ditch makes this a very significant barrier to passage, as much as the high banks.
The banks and ditches vary through its length, sometimes single bank, up to three banks, height up to 12m and similar ditches. The Northern end is human made, a single high bank around 3m high and a steep ditch around 2m deep. The south end is a deep ravine formed by a seasonal river in chalk, and artificially enhanced. There is a high bank to the east of the beck dyke with deep ditch between.
The south end chalk cliff beach is full of chalk fossils. Water runs straight off and out of the chalk cliff and also out of the higher beach sand, so there is a plenteous fresh water source.
Visiting is easy as there is a carpark (£2.90 all day). It is not too crowded by tourists even on a Sunday, and there are nice grass overflow fields. A mixture of families and fossil hunters. Most people don’t go far from the small cafe and toilets.
This is an amazing place to get a feel for what people built over 3000 years ago. As Richard Bradley said, actually the agricultural earthworks of Bronze Age Britain were as much an engineering endeavour as the monuments of the Neolithic.
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