Monument record MDO8257 - Bindon Hill, West Lulworth

Iron Age defensive enclosure complex incorporating a hillfort - both incomplete. The remains of this site are visible as earthwork banks and ditches on aerial photographs and Lidar imagery.

SY 835803. Bindon Hill camp. Scheduled. <5> (Circa SY 83658032) A new cable trench was dug across Bindon Hill earthworks in 1977 and revealed that the rampart of the outer defences had a maximum height of 1.15m, constructed directly on chalk bedrock. The outer ditch was 1.40m deep with a maximum width of 3.5m. No evidence of a counterscarp bank and no finds recovered from the trench. <6> Bindon Hill earthworks represent a vast I.A. defensive enclosure complex, clearly unfinished, with a 'hillfort in similar condition incorporated at the west end. Generally both are as described by authority 2, though the outwork at Stairhole, SY 822799, has been shortened by a cliff fall. It is notable that, except for some 400m. immediately east of the entrance, 1400m. of the internal quarry ditch for the rampart is well defined and cleanly cut. On the sheltered north slope above the ditch nearly 30 scooped depressions occur at irregular intervals. They range from 4.5m. to 14m. in diameter but normally about 8m. and are cut back to a depth of between 0.2m. and 0.7m. A few are set 10m. from the ditch but most open almost to the lip but never break the line or intrude upon the ditch. It seems unlikely that they are quarrying for the rampart since there is no additional dumping and they are best explained as hut platforms. The outer ditch, 10m. to 15m. below the rampart is mostly merely a terrace which peters out 1400m. east of the entrance as a series of widely spaced alignment scoops extending in all for 200m. (See 1:2500 plan also ground photographs). Survey at 1:2500 on M.S.D. <7> The remains of this Iron Age defensive structure are visible as earthwork banks and ditches on aerial photographs <11-13> and Lidar imagery <14>. These features were digitally plotted during the South West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (Dorset).

Record last edited

Oct 25 2023 12:10PM