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DUNDON HILL

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Earthwork remains of an Iron Age univallate hillfort on the Somerset Levels circa 5 hectares in internal area. The rampart varies in height between 0.5 and 2.5 metres and the defensive circuit is incomplete in some places. On the south east corner of the fort is a mound known as Dundon Beacon with a lynchet running from it. This has been interpreted as a Bronze Age bowl barrow, later adapted as a Norman motte (please see ST 43 SE 9 for further details). A spring on the hill is believed to have been regarded asa holy well in the Medieval period. Scheduled.

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[ST 485322] Dundon Hill CAMP [GT]. (1)

This consists of a bank of stones along the edge of the hill, the outer face of the hill top being steeply scarped. On the NW the bank has disappeared and there is only the scarp. Along the E side, about 16 ft. below the top of the bank, is a ledge below which the ground falls away steeply. The entrance was about the middle of this side, but has been much altered.(2) [Plan,see photo AO/64/107/4] Several flint flakes, a core and scrapers, also a few pieces of pottery of B.A. type were found by Bulleid on the surface within the camp in 1916. They are now in Taunton Museum (3). (2-3)

This is a univallate Iron Age hill fort. An entrance may have existed on the east side but quarrying has destroyed all traces of it. Published survey 1/2500, revised. Flints found by Bulleid still in Taunton Museum. (4)

ST 485 321. Dundon Hill. Listed in gazetteer as a univallate hillfort covering 5.5ha. (5)

The NMR holds detailed survey drawings and interpretational information on the site (6-11).

A spring issuing from the east side of the hill may have been a "Holy Well". early documents for the surrounding woodland known today as Hillwall Wood fefer to "Halgwyl", suggesting the spring to be that to which the name owes its origin. (12)

ST 48503220. Dundon Hill Camp is a defended hilltop settlement of c.5ha internal area. The site comprises a single earthwork rampart enclosing the upper surface of the hill, following the irregular form of the hilltop topography. An earthen mound, known as Dundon Beacon (ST 43 SE 9) intrudes into the south-east corner of the rampart circuit. The rampart varies in height between 0.5m and 2.5m and the defensive circuit is incomplete in several places, having been destroyed by later quarrying, including a 150m stretch along the eastern side. It is likely that the original entrance was positioned within this now destroyed section. Two openings in the defences which do survive, on the west side and on the south-east corner, which are used as access to the interior today, are likely to be later intrusions and not authentic entrances.
Evidence for later use of the hill includes Limestone quarrying, consisting of a large, linear open trench of up to 17m wide and 5m deep, running diagonally across the interior. Cultivation of probable Medieval date is also evident with several lynchets extending around the surrounding hillslope. Some sections of the rampart have been re-used as field boundaries, which survive as decayed hedges. (13)

The Hillfort was scheduled in 1996. (14)

Volume 91 of the BAR report series gives an overview of what was known about the hillfort in 1981. (15)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1962

( 2) edited by William Page 1911 The Victoria history Somerset, volume two

The Victoria history of the counties of England 1911 Page(s)490-1

( 3) Somerset archaeology and natural history : the proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society

(A Bulleid) 62 - 1916 Page(s)IX

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

F1 JP 21-FEB-67

(5) British Archaeological Reports: British series

(AHA Hogg) 62 - 1979 Page(s)201

(6) Dundon Hill/ink survey

(7) Dundon Hill, interpretation and vegetation diagram

(8) Dundon Hill

(9) Dundon Hill Camp

(10) Dundon Hill/pencil survey

Dundon Hill/ink survey

(11) Dundon Hill/pencil survey

Dundon Hill/ink survey

(12) General reference

Hollinrake N 1989 Dundon Beacon Nature Reserve

(13) Field Investigators Comments

RCHME Field Investigation 09-MAR-1994 P Newman

(14) Scheduled Monument Notification

English Heritage Schedule Entry 23/12/1996

(15) by Ian Burrow 1981 Hillfort and hill-top settlement in Somerset in the first to eighth centuries A.D.

BAR British series1 (1974) - 91 Page(s)214

RELATED MONUMENTS

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Monument Name/No

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Description

DUNDON BEACON
COMPTON DUNDON

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A mound in the south-east side of Dundon Hill hillfort was excavated in the 19th century and found to contain a Bronze Age cist. This burial included ...

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