Talk:List of hillforts and ancient settlements in Somerset

Improvements

Nice start. I made some changes and have a couple of suggestions for improvement. I removed items clearly not in Somerset. I also added Cadbury Camp. Currently missing is Worlebury Camp as are a lot of the items at Category:Hill forts in Somerset, but I guess you are working on those given tag on the article. Coordinates only need to be four digits precision - any more is a waste and just takes up room in the table. It would be nice to have the table in alphabetic order to start. Currently the order is pretty random and although the columns are sortable, it would nice to start with some sort of order. --Simple Bob (talk) 12:12, 26 December 2010 (UTC)

Sections

Once I add every hillfort and ancient settlement to the table, I will find out which lie in which parts of Somerset (e.g. North Somerset). Then I will break up the one big table into smaller tables under section headings like ==North Somerset==. Does anybody have a map or a link to a map containing each part of Somerset labelled? The picture I found here has Somerset divided into parts, but the parts are unlabelled. Reaper Eternal (talk) 21:25, 26 December 2010 (UTC)

Personally I don't think that it is necessary to split by area, but if you want to do it then take the graphics and key from the infobox at List of civil parishes in Somerset. --Simple Bob ^{a.k.a. The Spaminator} (Talk) 21:40, 26 December 2010 (UTC)

Criteria for inclusion and organisation

This list is a good start however I think there needs to be a lead setting out the criteria for inclusion i.e. what does "Ancient" mean in this context? What constitutes a "settlement"? Specifically are we talking about Iron Age, Bronze Age etc? Is there at cut off at the Roman invasion? What about Deserted medieval villages such as Oath, Somerset? Should the hill forts match List of hill forts in England#Somerset or perhaps replace that section with a link to this list? Presumably it will eventually include all articles at Category:Hill forts in Somerset and perhaps a link should be added to the lead of that category pointing to this article? What about some of the articles at Category:Archaeological sites in Somerset? Category:Scheduled Ancient Monuments in Somerset would also be worth looking at.

Once those issues have been resolved I think some organisation is needed. This could be by district, age, alphabetical or whatever is appropriate - I would favour alphabetical by name. I think the approx age should be a separate sortable column & I can't see any benefit in having the picture or description columns sortable. The location column could be worthwhile if the first item in it is the village, parish or whatever the site is located within. I think it would be useful to discuss & resolve these issues now before the list gets much bigger.— Rod ^talk 13:16, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

• I had been including everything up to the Roman invasion of Britain. I did so because I had felt that was where the British architecture became heavily influenced by the Romans, and Roman settlements then dotted the region.
• An ancient settlement, at least the way I was referring to it, was a village used by the Ancient Britons. (Maybe this list should be split into two lists, "List of Hillforts in Somerset" and "List of Ancient Settlements in Somerset"?)
• I agree that we need to have it sorted alphabetically, and an approximte age column would be nice too. However, I do not know how to make the table auto-sort by name on page load.
• We do not need all the SAMs from Category:Scheduled Ancient Monuments in Somerset, since that would include things like standing stones or henges.

Reaper Eternal (talk) 14:12, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

OK I've made a start by expanding the lead, making it display alphabetically by name, adding an age column (sorting on that may not work yet), removing sorting by picture & description, adding village/parish to location column & adding new content to the end of letter "B". It still needs a lot of work - obviously adding content, but also revising the descriptions which probably don't need to include Iron Age etc as this is now in age column. If we had enough of them we could also make a column for plans & a separate column for photos - but not sure if that is viable at present. Any further thoughts welcome.— Rod ^talk 21:20, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

I've also just noticed that the Scheduling numbers given appear to be a mixture of the old county numbers (2 or 3 digits) and the newer national system (5 digits) this needs to be standardised or explained.— Rod ^talk 21:23, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Also just noticed that the coords templates are not named - so if you look at the google maps etc generated from the kml file they don't have meaningful labels.— Rod ^talk 21:27, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Duncorn Hill

Should Duncorn Hill be kept in this article as the survey in 1966 found no evidence of Bronze or Iron Age fortification (see Pastscape record)?— Rod ^talk 21:27, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

I've now removed this one.— Rod ^talk 21:33, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

It was proposed for deletion although after a suprisingly long discussion the result was keep. Jaguar (talk) 20:29, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

But as there is no evidence it was a hillfort I still don't think it should be in this list.— Rod ^talk 20:33, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

I agree; Duncorn Hil is not a Iron Age fort and probably never was, I was suprised myself when it survived an AfD. Jaguar (talk) 21:12, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

Speaking of which, I see that a new 'Suspected hill forts and settlements' section has been added to the article. Does anyone think that Duncorn Hill should be mentioned in this section? Jaguar (talk) 20:47, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

No. I don't think there is any evidence to suggest there could even possibly have been a hillfort at Duncorn Hill and therefore I don't think it should be included.— Rod ^talk 20:56, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

Castle Neroche Hillfort & Castle Neroche

There was a red link for Castle Neroche Hillfort in the list. I have now pointed this to Castle Neroche as it is the same site. In fact there is no evidence for Iron age occupation of the site and therefore I wonder if it should be in this list at all?— Rod ^talk 21:28, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Actually, it mentions that the castle is on the site of an older hillfort, so wouldn't that be Iron Age? (I'll check more closely when I get home from college.) Reaper Eternal (talk) 21:41, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

The Ordnance Survey 1962 Ordnance Survey map of southern Britain in the Iron Age lists a hillfort at Castle Neroche [1]. The Forestry Commission's website considers there to be a hillfort there [2], but I suppose it's not an ideal source. Understanding the castle ruins of England and Wales considers the castle to have been built on an Iron Age hillfort but doesn't go into detail [3] Nev1 (talk) 21:53, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

There are several sources which say the Motte & Bailey was built on Iron Age earthworks - however none seem to give any details & The historic environment listing (on which Scheduling is largely based) talks about finds at the site "but nothing iron age or Roman". I don't think separate articles are needed but more could be added to the Castle Neroche one.— Rod ^talk 08:13, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Having looked at this again I still can't see why two separate articles are needed. Couldn't the Castle Neroche article just be expanded to give the (limited) detail available about the earlier earthwork, and the link to Castle Neroche Hillfort be redirected to it? There are several examples where a site has been used for defensive purposes through several era and they can be included in the same article.— Rod ^talk 10:58, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Considering that it is the same site, I agree that one article would be best, especially considering that the information on the hillfort is relatively sparse. Reaper Eternal (talk) 11:39, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

OK I've done the redirect.— Rod ^talk 11:48, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Charterhouse

Has anyone got any sources for a Neolithic or Bronze age settlement at Charterhouse Camp? There are several sources describing burials in local caves at Charterhouse, Somerset, from that period (any lots on later occupation by Romans etc) but nothing on a settlement or camp - can anyone help?— Rod ^talk 20:37, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Moving this list towards FLC

Now that most of the sites in this list have articles, it may be appropriate to consider what else might be needed to move it towards Featured list nomination. There are a few things I think need to be considered:

• Text is centered rather than left justified. I don't know why this is and I think should be changed at least for the description column
• The photographs don't seem to add much (at 100px) we could remove this column and make one or two into lead images.
• Where there is no scheduling number or plan a dash is normally entered into the table cell
• The description sections need to be copy edited, and I would suggest removing some content from some of them so that they are all roughly the same length
• All "facts" need to be checked to ensure there is a citation to support them.
• Some of the sources eg digital digging, Megalithic Portal and Fortified England (and possibly others may be challenged on the grounds or reliability
• Can the Template:Expand list be removed - are we confident they are all now included?
• Should ditches and dykes be included when they were probably not a hillfort or settlement?

Any thoughts on these or others issues which need to be addressed?— Rod ^talk 15:51, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Addressing these points in order:

• I'll fix that.
• I agree that the "photograph" column should probably be removed, especially considering that many of the photographs, such as the Cleeve Toot or the Cannington Camp ones, do not even show the fort. Any thoughts on moving the good-quality images that actually show the fort into a gallery at the bottom? Moving one or two of the very best into the lead would be a good idea, so I have boldly just done it.
• Agree.
• I'm relatively decent at copyediting and will try to get that done in a bit, unless somebody else already has. Just let me know if I change any British spellings to the American version! (Per the manual of style, this should use British spelling since it describes a British location.)
• Definitely!
• Maybe we should cite as much as we can to reliable sources, and include a link to the Megalithic Portal articles when they exist, since the Megalithic Portal appears to be a bit like an IMDb for archaeological sites. Additionally, the Megalithic Portal is really the only site that ever gives the geographic coordinates.
• I went ahead and removed the {{expand list}} template.
• I would suggest possibly splitting into two lists, one containing known hillforts and the other containing the possible hillforts. Any dikes that are known to be not hillforts should be removed.

Thanks for making a start on these issues. My specific suggestions for removal include: Fox Covert - likely a stock enclosure, New Ditch - boundary marker & Ponter's Ball Dyke - defensive line, likely to be 12th century.— Rod ^talk 19:55, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Some good work on copyediting the descriptions - I would suggest that Iron Age don't need to be included as they are in the age column & duplicated in the description.— Rod ^talk 19:15, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

We have references for some coords but not for others. I would suggest that these are not needed as long as a click on the coord takes the reader to a map with the site named (as in other FLs) & Pastscape gives grid refs.— Rod ^talk 16:02, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

Some specific questions & comments

I've been going through this list converting Somerset Scheduled Monument Numbers to the national scheme (preferred for the last 20 years or so). I've been checking them on Pastscape which serves as the national monuments record and as a result have some specific questions and comments about items which should be possibly be removed:

• Athelney - Although the entry at Megalithic portal and Somerset Estuary Levels Research Committee claim "evidence of Iron Age and Bronze age" & Oak piles for a bronze age bridge, the pastscape record only gives anglo-Saxon & more recent dates.

• Further searching of Somerset Extensive Urban Survey:Lyng and Athelney and Evaluation (1996), Balt Moor Wall, Athelney has me more convinced that this should NOT be included in the list.— Rod ^talk 12:58, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

• I found an article on the Telegraph mentioning this hillfort. Reaper Eternal (talk) 23:20, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

• The reference talks about Alfred but, as far as I can see doesn't say it was an Iron Age hillfort.— Rod ^talk 08:00, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

• Berwick is a "possible site of an Iron Age multivallate hillfort" and "there are no certain traces of earthworks of hillfort type" from the Pastscape record
• Charterhouse Camp - some evidence, in the form of burials in local caves, of human occupation since the late Neolithic times and the early Bronze Age, but I can't find evidence of a camp or settlement prior to Roman occupation.
• Daw's Castle - Saxon date given by Pastscape record & SHER record says "The enclosure does not appear to be of IA origin - may be the remains of a Burghal Hidage fort"
• Fox Covert - SHER says "Characteristically Iron age but has several features in it which suggests that it is probably a stock enclosure rather than a hillfort"
  • I'm just going to remove this due to that HER note. Reaper Eternal (talk) 23:20, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
• New Ditch - Pastscape says "possible Iron Age or Medieval linear earthwork comprising a bank and ditch." Defensive earthwork rather than hillfort or settlement.
  • Removed. Reaper Eternal (talk) 12:11, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
• Ponter's Ball Dyke - Patscape says "Excavation in 1970 appears to date Ponters Ball, at least at the point examined, to the 12th century or later". Megalithic Portal says "A Linear Earthwork, possibly of Iron Age date, in Somerset". SHER has "Could also be sub Roman and connected with the Dark Age occupation on Glastonbury Tor". Therefore unlikely to be Iron Age & defensive barrier rather than settlement.
  • Removed. Reaper Eternal (talk) 12:11, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
• Walton Castle - Although Fortified England gives this as Iron Age, Pastscape 195458 gives this as post medieval, although Pastscape 195478 describes "these earthworks correspond with the alignment of the earthwork remains of an Iron Age/Romano-British field system" but says "the earthworks may also be connected with the construction of Walton Castle in the 17th century" - so I'm not sure of the strength of the evidence here?

Therefore I'd welcome comments/stronger evidence or removal of these from the list.— Rod ^talk 11:41, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

I think (based on pastscape etc) that Chelvey Batch Settlement and Taps Combe Camp are two different names for the same place. The number given for Chelvey Batch Settlement isn't recognised on the NMR & the locations are within a few feet of each other. Therefore I propose removing Chelvey Batch Settlement & adding it as an alternative name.— Rod ^talk 13:10, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Could Chelvey Batch Settlement be merged with Taps Combe Camp? I think that there could be a header on the Chelvey Batch Settlement in the Taps Combe Camp article? Jaguar (talk) 14:12, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Done - what about the others above which I think should be removed?— Rod ^talk 15:15, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

I think that the Berwick hill fort could be the next Duncorn Hill - if there are no traces of any earthworks there then it could not be notable enough to have its own article. As for Fox Covert - I'll have a look to see if there are more sources to see that if it is actually a hill fort rather than stock enclosure before starting it. Jaguar (talk) 17:22, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

I've had a quick casual look at this excellent list; a few comments (some aiming towards FLC):

• I first looked at it on my old narrow screen monitor, and it's nearly all white space with long squashed Descriptions. But it looks good on the wide screen. Not sure if you ought/need to do anything about that. I suppose narrow screens will become obsolete in time.
• Are you going to add a {{GeoGroupTemplate}}?

• It has a {{kml}} which does the same job

• "It is also likely that extraction and smelting of mineral ores..." Who says?

• This paragraph is reference to History of Exmoor where it is discussed.— Rod ^talk 16:20, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

• A few trifles for consistency:

• Not all the PDF refs have a format=PDF field (and that's touché from me to Rob!).

• touché accepted & hopefully fixed

• I think ISBNs should have hyphens between the numbers rather than gaps — some have, some haven't.

• Hopefully all done (& some converted to 13 digit isbns

• The date at Refs 133 and 139 (at least) are in a different format from the others.

• Got those two if there are any others let me know.— Rod ^talk 12:05, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

• I just wonder if you need a clearer definition of what you have included in the list; and why; and is it comprehensive; what is a Scheduled Monument; that sort of thing.--Peter I. Vardy (talk) 10:26, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

• I've added a bit about scheduled monuments etc. Is it not clear from the lead that basically the list is covering identified sites prior to the Romans?— Rod ^talk 16:20, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Split list

I've split the list into two distinct lists. One list contains known hillforts and ancient settlements, and the other contains suspected hillforts and ancient settlements. I think this is better than simply removing them since further evidence may turn up that these are or are not hillforts and settlements. Reaper Eternal (talk) 18:59, 2 April 2011 (UTC)

Pre-FLC questions:

Nobody asked me to do this, but I would like to help to bring this list towards FL, so I'll post my comments here. Jaguar (talk) 12:51, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Lead

• "It has been argued that they could have been military sites constructed in response to invasion from continental Europe" - this should be more specific - what is 'continental Europe'? Could it have been the Romans or anybody else in the age period?

This is cited to pages 71 to 72 of Sharples (1991), although the relevant bit appears to include page 70. From that page comes the following quote: "The two major changes outlined above [appearance of hillforts and widespread use of iron technology] have been linked in many theories which have tried to explain the transformation that took place [in Britain] at this time [the Early Iron Age]. The most common theory, accepted by many archaeologists in the first half of this century, was that hillforts were an unsuccessful response to invaders from the Continent and that the invaders brought in new technology of iron production. ... Other writers argued that the appearance of hillforts was a direct result of an invasion with the incomers constructing a series of forts from which they could dominate a cowed and subservient population. In the last thirty years these interpretations have been seriously challenged. It was realized that contact and trade across the Channel were relatively important features of many periods (one of the most visible being the Late Bronze Age), but that the Iron Age does not seem to have been one of these. Continental imports were relatively rare ... Perhaps more important, however, was a refinement in our perception of how social change takes place. Throughout the period when the 'invasion hypothesis' was prevalent the underlying assumption was that the societies or cultures which could be recognized in the archaeological record were relatively static." Sharples goes on to talk about anthropological methods. I can provide more if anyone wants, but Sharples is unfortunately not more specific than "the Continent"; I assume he just means the Early Iron Age people of northwest Europe. Nev1 (talk) 18:39, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

• "Other hill forts, such as Small Down Knoll, Solsbury Hill, Dolebury Warren and Burledge Hill, may have had domestic purposes as well as a defensive role." - this is interesting, but it doesn't explain what domestic purposes it had.
• "The Iron Age tribes of later Somerset were the Dobunni in north Somerset, Durotriges in south Somerset and Dumnonii in west Somerset." - shouldn't 'later Somerset' be more specific? (it doesn't explain when it was - the word 'later' could mean anything!)

• I have removed "later" as iron Age is already included in the sentence.— Rod ^talk 16:41, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

• "In addition to the hillforts several sites have been identified as settlements during the same period including Cambria Farm and the "Lake Villages" - which period was this?

• I have changed this to pre-Roman as evidence for specific dates seems sparse.— Rod ^talk 16:41, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Looking at Somerset Levels, I think that there could be some sort of map made for the hill forts describing things such as terrain, height elevation and locations of the hill forts itself.

When I did the Somerset Levels settlement map (with help from a map expert) I tried this but there are so many close together that all the labels overlapped - my draft (with just those starting with B) is at User:Rodw/Sandbox/Somersethillfortsmaps you are welcome to edit it.— Rod ^talk 13:18, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

List

• The list needs to be balanced so that they are approximately the same length. For example, I see that some hill forts such as Cadbury Hill has a huge chunk of writing whereas Cambria Farm only has one sentence!
• This may not be a requirement for FLC, but I see that not all of the hill forts have been given images. It would be great to see all the maps complete. I understand that half of them do not have maps, but an image of the actual hill fort would be reasonable to have.

• I am not aware of any plans (or photographs) which are available, and suitably licensed, for the others - it would be great if someone had them and could make them available.— Rod ^talk 13:18, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

• This may be a big probem here; every fact needs to be checked once more to make sure that it has a citation to support them. For example there are a few sections in the table where it needs to be expanded and have more than one citation to support it.

• The number of reliable sources for each site is variable. a specific problem is that Somerset & Exmoor Historic Environment Records are available either through their own web sites or Heritage Gateway, however North Somerset and BANES records are not.

• There are a couple of sites that do not have a Scheduling Number (ditto Athelney and Walton Castle). If there is no scheduling number, wouldn't a dash be inserted?

• The two specifics you mention I would advocate removing from the list as their doesn't seem to be reliable evidence of Iron Age occupation (see list above) & this may well be why their is no NMR number & citation.

• You could remove the photograph column, but this would leave some problems with supplying the forts with images. Why not have a gallery of the hill forts at the bottom of the page instead of maps showing where they are? Or you could have both?

• The photograph column has already been removed into a gallery at the bottom - I only found images for about a third of the sites - however I believe galleries are discouraged, and may need to be removed for FLC - small pictures of grassy areas don't really add much to the understanding of the sites.

Thanks for all comments I will try to work on some more of them when I get some time.— Rod ^talk 13:18, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Monument Numbers

I noticed a change to the SAM Number for Blacker's Hill which I think highlights some problems. The SHER ref which has now been used gives No:29032 however I have been trying to standardise on those given by Pastscape (NMR) which for this site is 200816. If this one is to be changed then all the others should be & the SHER doesn't have numbers for a lot of them. If we are not using a sinlge figure then I think a note to that effect will be needed.— Rod ^talk 17:51, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

I've just been stung by this. I agree that using a mix of different types of number would be a mistake, but I hadn't realised that Pastscape's "Monument number" (which is great in its scope, allowing most items to have a number) doesn't seem to be an official "Scheduling number" for the purposes of Scheduled Ancient Monuments as given in the column header. Does including a list of Pastscape numbers help readers any more than a Pastscape link would? If so, we should probably change the column header to make clear what the number is. If not, we could move the links to the description (or have a separate Pastscape link column), and possibly make a new column for the old Scheduled Monument number (where it's available) or the new National Heritage List for England number (which I believe includes all the Scheduled Monuments, and possibly more). I don't mind putting in a bit of time to try to get this right. ‑‑xensyria^T 12:40, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the comment - although my original concern here was 3 years ago and things have moved on a bit. I think it is now better to use the numbers from the National Heritage List for England as my understanding is that, like Images of England, Pastscape will not be updated as changes are included in the record, and it may not be comprehensive. The Somerset Historic Environment Record (SHER) is still available although all of the Scheduled Ancient Monument numbers on it have been superseeded. Care is needed as some records were transferred to the Exmoor Historic Environment Record (EHER) (but remain on the Somerset list) and Bath and North East Somerset & North Somerset, being unitary authorities, are not included on the Somerset list. So I would use the NHLE number in the column & add Pastscape & SHER/EHER references to the description where they provide additional information. NB I do not believe all of the sites identified are scheduled as ancient monuments.— Rod ^talk 16:54, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

Done (thank goodness for the list's co-ordinates and NHLE map search). There were a few more missing on NHLE than Pastscape, but hopefully this will gradually improve. Shame about Pastscape; I've moved all its links to the description, where they can be removed if redundant. ‑‑xensyria^T 03:16, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

P.S. Any thoughts on a better column name than "Scheduling number", even with the link now pointing to National Heritage List for England instead? ‑‑xensyria^T 11:37, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

I would suggest renaming that column to "National Heritage List for England number" (or similar).— Rod ^talk 15:19, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

Oh, ok. I'm not used to editing featured lists, and sort of assumed that might be too long. Thanks. ‑‑xensyria^T 23:12, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

Copy-edit

I have made a number of copy-edits and removed overlinking.[4] Feel free to revert. I also introduced a subsection for the Scheduled monuments description as otherwise, it seemed to start rather abruptly. Jezhotwells (talk) 21:09, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! Reaper Eternal (talk) 21:37, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

Comments from PR

Following the Peer review of this article, I have dealt with most of the typos & attempted to improve the consistency of linking & imperial v metric conversions. The units and conversions could still do with more checking, but I specifically wanted to start some discussion here about the last 2 comments from the excellent review:

• The images are small and at the bottom of the list. Can they be placed alongside the list near their descriptions?
• Is there a distinct difference between suspected and confirmed forts/settlements? Is there some missing piece of information that makes it suspected rather than confirmed? I'm just wondering why certain sites are suspected as being forts.

Does anyone have any comments on these?— Rod ^talk 13:05, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

I liked it when we had images in the table. I think that the photos add much more value than the plans. --Simple Bob ^{a.k.a. The Spaminator} (Talk) 14:08, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

More hillforts of Somerset

Ian Burrow, Hillfort and Hill-top Settlement in Somerset in the First to Eighth Centuries A.D., BAR British Series 91 (Oxford, 1981) contains a list of hillforts in Somerset. These are the ones in his list which don't appear in this one. I make no judgment whether these should be added to this list; if further information is needed about any of them, I can provide the details Burrow has in his monograph. -- llywrch (talk) 05:00, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

Bathampton Camp
Berry Castle ? Bury Castle
Blackdown Camp
Blaise Castle (Bristol)
Brent Knoll
Brewer's Castle
Broomfield Camp ? Ruborough Camp
Burwalls ? Burgh Walls Camp
Bury Camp ? Bury Castle
Castles Camp Bathealton
Castle Wood
Clatworthy Camp
Clifton Camp ? in Bristol

Combe Hill

Countisbury ? Devon
Creech Hill ? Fox Covert (probable stock enclosure)
Croydon Hill
Dinies Camp
East Myne
Hales Castle
Horse Pool Camp
King's Castle, Wells
King's Weston ? Kingsweston Hill (Bristol)
Littledown Camp
Maesbury Castle
Milbourne Wick
Moat House Farm
Pitcher's Enclosure
Road Castle
Rodhuish Common
Rook's Castle
Rowberrow Camp ? Dolebury Warren
Shipham
South Cadbury = Cadbury Castle, Somerset
Staddon Hill
Sweetworthy
Wadbury Camp
Walton Banjo
Wambrook Camp
Wortheal I & II

Wraxall Camp

Thanks for this - I have taken the liberty of wikilinking some of those which are already in the list and have articles & suggesting where I think differences in naming mean that different terms relate to the same site. In some cases I believe they relate to sites in Bristol & Devon (could conceivably have been Somerset before boundary reorganisation).— Rod ^talk 07:48, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

Although some problems with this list can be solved by making it clear that "Somerset" refers to the contemporary county, & not the traditional one -- & I hope you have done this, Rod -- there is another problem which I need to point out: in Burrow's list there are three "Berry/Bury"s. These are (with their Ordinance Survey coordinates):

• Berry Castle -- SS 917 471
• Bury Camp -- SS 859 449
• Bury Hill -- ST 652 791

I hope this shows that there are two possible hillforts not in this list, different from Bury Castle. I'll work thru Burrow's list as I get time to provide more information for their identification. -- llywrch (talk) 05:34, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. As to definition we work on the ceremonial county (which includes the Unitary Authorities of BANES & North Somerset) as "traditional" is impossible to define as it has changed over hundreds of years many times.

• Berry Castle -- SS 917 471 is the same grid ref as Bury Castle, Somerset
• Bury Hill -- ST 652 791 is in S. Glos

It would be great if you (& anyone else reading this) could enter the data in the table below, as once we have enough info (particularly grid refs etc) we can then easily transfer it into the list once agreed. I've made a start but still lots of blanks...— Rod ^talk 08:43, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

List of Hill Forts and Ancient Settlements in Somerset

Site Name Alternative name(s)	Age	Scheduling Number	Plan	Location	Description
Bathampton Camp	Iron Age<L/s>	203244		Bathampton 51.3847°N 2.3262°W / 51.3847; -2.3262 (Bathampton Camp)	An Early Iron Age stock enclosure a and possible Iron Age and Roman field system were excavated in 1904-5, 1952-4 and later. Finds included human and animal remains, pottery and flint flakes. Scheduled.[5]
Berry Castle Bury Camp	late Iron Age or early Romano British			Luccombe 51.1924°N 3.6335°W / 51.1924; -3.6335 (Burry Camp)	Berry Castle is a late Iron Age or early Romano British hillslope enclosure visible as a series of earthworks [6]
Broomfield Camp	late Prehistoric and/or Roman			Broomfield 51.0824°N 3.1199°W / 51.0824; -3.1199 (Broomfield Camp)	Sub-rectangular univallate enclosure. Archeological excavation in 1968, trench through bank & ditch produced Iron Age pottery. A possible late Prehistoric and/or Roman enclosure is situated on the edge of a spur, with steep slopes to the SE and SW, between 225m and 230m above OD. [7]
Brewer's Castle	Iron Age	35635		Dulverton 51.0563°N 3.5949°W / 51.0563; -3.5949 (Brewer's Castle)	Brewer's Castle, an Iron Age defended settlement or hillfort, survives as an earthwork in Hawkridge Ridge Wood.[8] Very close to Mounsey Castle
Castles Camp The Castles		32178		Bathealton 51.0117°N 3.3449°W / 51.0117; -3.3449 (Castles Camp)	Univallate hillfort with a slightly inturned entrance [9]
Creech Hill				Milton Clevedon ST 666 367	Univallate fort on W-facing promontory. Site first identified from aerial photography in 1926. ?Fox Covert (probable stock enclosure). Could be medieval [10] Very unsure about including this one.— Rod talk 08:45, 13 May 2011 (UTC)
Croydon Hill				Dunster SS 981 403	Univallate hillside enclosure, interior damaged by forestry plantation. probably LONGWOOD [11] from map ref etc but not totally sure.— Rod talk 08:45, 13 May 2011 (UTC)
Dinies Camp				Downhead 51.2108°N 2.4642°W / 51.2108; -2.4642 (Dinies Camp)	Medieval but MAY be on site of earlier earthwork [12]
East Myne				Minehead Without	deserted Medieval and/or Post Medieval farmstead [13]
Hales Castle		202864		Selwood 51.1971°N 2.291°W / 51.1971; -2.291 (Hales Castle)	Earthwork of ringwork and unfinished bailey.[14] very close to Roddenbury Hillfort
Horse Pool Camp Harbury Hamberry				Whitestaunton 50.8763°N 3.0453°W / 50.8763; -3.0453 (Horse Pool Camp)	Oval univallate hillfort 300m long and 150m wide [15]
King's Castle, Somerset	Iron Age	24024		Wells 51.2084°N 2.6191°W / 51.2084; -2.6191 (King's Castle)	Iron Age settlement and field system [16]
Littledown Camp				North Stoke, Somerset	Pillow mounds - previously claimed to be barrows, at Littledown Camp.[17]
Milborne Wick				Burrow places at Milborne Port, ST 671 207	First described by F. Warre, "Milborne Wick", Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Scoiety, 7 (1856-57), pp. 60-62. I think this should be Milborne Wick near Milborne Port - "promontory fort on Barrow Hill, above the village of Milborne Wick is thought to date to the Iron Age." [18] also [19] - Burrow Hill may be name.— Rod talk 08:45, 13 May 2011 (UTC)
Moat House Farm	Iron Age			Wraxall ST487 732	Circular embanked enclosure, south side destroyed by agriculture & north side badly eroded. Archeological excavation in 1929 cut trench through interior and earthwork. Iron age material & Roman pottery recovered. This appears to be Mon No: 195341 not the nearby farmhouse see [20]
Pitcher's Enclosure				West Harptree	"Late Bronze Age/Iron Age settlement sites such as Pitcher’s Enclosure, near West Harptree," ([21] p15) [22]
Road Castle	Iron Age	35715		Winsford, Somerset 51.1261°N 3.6264°W / 51.1261; -3.6264 (Road Castle)	Road Castle is a bank and ditch defined enclosure of probable Iron Age date [23]
Rodhuish Common	Iron Age	1139717		Withycombe 51.1435°N 3.4323°W / 51.1435; -3.4323 (Rodhuish Common)	An small oval enclosure on Rodhuish Common, probably of Iron Age date. [24]
Rook's Castle				Broomfield, Somerset 51.085°N 3.0679°W / 51.085; -3.0679 (Rook's Castle)	A series of earthwork enclosures south of Rooks Castle Farm were located on air photographs. [25] May be medieval rather than Iron Age
Rowberrow Camp Blackdown Camp		194305		Shipham 51.3089°N 2.7645°W / 51.3089; -2.7645 (Blackdown Camp)	Hill-slope enclosure with featureless interior. Rowberrow Camp is similar to the nearby enclosure of unknown date and purpose, Age uncertain. [26] Defenses have been mutilated by forestry operations. Mentioned in Victoria County History II (1911), p. 512.
Staddon Hill Camp		35712		Winsford, Somerset 51.1273°N 3.5994°W / 51.1273; -3.5994 (Staddon Hill Camp)	Staddon Hill Camp is a ditch and bank defined hill-slope enclosure of probable later prehistoric date. [27]
Wadbury Camp	Iron Age			Mells 51.2391°N 2.3803°W / 51.2391; -2.3803 (Wadbury Camp)	Earthwork remains of an Iron Age promontory fort or univallate hillfort. [28]
Walton Banjo	Iron Age	195425		Walton in Gordano 51.4597°N 2.8240°W / 51.4597; -2.8240 (Walton Banjo)	A scheduled banjo enclosure possibly dating to the Late Iron Age, [29] NB should replace Walton Castle in list
Wambrook Camp				Wambrook 50.8625°N 2.9804°W / 50.8625; -2.9804 (Wambrook Camp)	oval enclosure formed by a bank and outer ditch [30]
Wortheal I & II				Wambrook 50.8719°N 3.0310°W / 50.8719; -3.0310 (Wortheal I & II)	Complex of field banks with three enclosures [31]
Wraxall Camp	Iron Age	198555		Failand 51.4444°N 2.6913°W / 51.4444; -2.6913 (Wraxall Camp)	An Iron Age defended settlement situated on level ground in an upland area of carboniferous limestone. [32]

I have added several sites where I think there is sufficient evidence to the list on the article & done strikethrough here. The others I feel need further discussion or additional evidence.— Rod ^talk 08:28, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

LIDAR pictures

I've just added a LIDAR picture of King's Castle, Wells to the list. It's not great quality as I'm a novice at using this LIDAR data, but if we work out how to get good pictures from it, it may be possible to start to add these for the rest of the unpictured sites, or even create SVG plans based on them. In case anyone's interested in this possibility, I've started up a discussion about it here. ‑‑Yodin^T 12:53, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

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Atlas of Hillforts

The Atlas of Hillforts is a new, publicly accessible site created to map and describe all hillforts in the British Isles. As well as creating its own site, the Atlas has shared some data about each site with Wikidata. On the project page we are listing tasks related to the data import, where help is welcomed. For Somerset, there are still some existing records in Wikidata which need to be merged with the imported records from Wikidata. We are also looking to tag photographs of the hillforts in Commons, and give the hillfort entries non-English labels. Although this Somerset list is already of Featured quality, you will probably find that the Atlas contains new research and description of each site. MartinPoulter (talk) 13:55, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

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