Guide: Hillfort Mounds of Europe

Guide: Common Features of Iron Age Hillforts

This article attempts to serve as a guide for many of the features of the hillforts found in Britain, in Read more

Guide: Iron-Age minting: Ceramic Pellet-mould trays

This article explores the most tangible evidence we possess for indigenous minting north of the Humber: the smashed ceramic “pellet-mould” Read more

Was Edinburgh an Iron-Age Oppidum?

An oppidum is the name given to a large population centre, with varying levels of fortification. So far, this concept Read more

The Legend of Caer Caradoc

Caer Caradoc is often linked to Caradoc (or Caradog), a prominent figure in Welsh mythology and Arthurian legend. Caradoc is Read more

Dunagoil Hillfort, (Isle of Bute, Argyll & Bute)

Dunagoil crowns a 30 m-high columnar-basalt promontory on the south-west coast of Bute, overlooking the Sound of Bute and the Read more

How Hill Hillfort, Swaledale

How Hill, near Downholme in North Yorkshire, is the site of a large Univallate hillfort.

Ingleborough Iron Age Hillfort

Ingleborough Hill, located in the Yorkshire Dales, is known for its prehistoric significance, particularly its hill fort. The hill fort Read more

Arka Unskel hillfort, Highlands

Arka Unskel is 2½ miles ESE of Arisaig at NM693839 and has also been known as Arisaig Fort, Ard Ghaunsgoik Read more

Guide: Barrows

A Barrow is a mound of earth and/or stones raised over a grave or group of graves. Used from the Read more

Hillfort mounds

Hillfort mounds are elevated, man-made (or heavily modified) earthen platforms whose crests carry ramparts, palisades or stone walls and whose flanks are protected by one or more surrounding ditches. They appear in most parts of Europe from the Late Bronze Age (c. 11th century BCE) but flourish during the Iron Age (8th century BCE – 1st century CE). Many were re-used or newly founded in the Roman and early-medieval periods. Their positions—usually on hilltops, spurs or sea-cliffs—gave wide views for surveillance and emphasised the power of the communities that built them. Excavation shows they could serve as defended farmsteads, seasonal refuges, tribal centres, craft hubs and places of assembly or ritual. (en.wikipedia.org)

Building techniques

Typical construction begins with a ditch dug just below the brow of the slope; the spoil is thrown inward to form a bank (rampart). That bank may be:

• Pure earth packed into a steep façade.
• Timber-laced “box” rampart: parallel timber walls infilled with earth and rubble, known across Britain and Atlantic Europe.
• Timber-framed stone rampart such as the murus gallicus of Gaul or the Bavarian-Czech Pfostenschlitzmauer (“post-slot wall”) of the Oppida, where vertical posts pierce a stone facing. (en.wikipedia.org)
• Vitrified wall: a stone rampart deliberately fired until outer courses fuse, best known in Scotland but now recognised more widely. (en.wikipedia.org)

Gateways are often elaborately in-turned, sometimes with staggered passages or horn-works to slow attackers. Inside, round or rectangular houses, granaries, workshops and livestock pens cluster against the rampart, leaving a central hollow or street-grid (in the largest sites).

“Multivallate Ringfort at Rathrar (Rathbarna Enclosure Complex), Co Roscommon, Ireland” by West Lothian Archaeological Trust (Jim Knowles, Frank Scott and John Wells) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0	“Tintagel Castle” by heritagedaily.com is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
“Manching model 1” by Wolfgang Sauber is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0	“Navan Fort, County Armagh – geograph.org.uk – 4044343” by Kenneth Allen is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Common hillfort types across Europe

Below is a practical typology that archaeologists and heritage managers use; many individual forts combine features from several categories.

Key concepts

• Shared idea, local expression – building a mound, ditch and rampart is a simple yet powerful strategy that different cultures adapted to their terrain, materials and social needs.
• Size tracks social complexity – from small univallate farmsteads to oppida of 100 ha, the scale of works mirrors political consolidation in the late Iron Age.
• Re-use and memory – many medieval castles, Norman mottes or Early Christian monasteries sit inside older hillfort circuits, showing these Earthworks remained potent landmarks long after their original builders were gone.
• Place in mythology – Many hillforts have a rich local mythology, often involving dragons, King Arthur, of the Devil. For example, the legend of Caer Caradoc.
• Uncertain primary purpose: Hillforts were long assumed to be the defences needed by war-like tribal kingdoms. However, more recently, it has been recognised that most never saw a fight, and are more related to earlier “ritual” monuments such as barrow and cursus type monuments that this understanding of a defensive primary purpose is now much less certain as a primary purpose.

Timeline of hillfort development

Reading the timeline

Left of “0” = BCE; right = CE.

Bars show when each construction/usage phase was most widespread (regional outliers exist).

“Trelleborg airphoto” by Thue C. Leibrandt is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Big-picture takeaways

Continuity through change: While rampart engineering evolves from simple earthen banks to timber-laced and stone facings, the underlying idea of a raised, ditched circuit remains constant for nearly two millennia.

Social scale expands: Forts grow from 1 to 5 ha farmstead refuges to 100 + ha oppida as tribal confederations form, then shrink again in turbulent post-Roman centuries before re-emerging as proto-cities (gords) and state fortresses (Viking ring-forts).

Technological exchange: Construction techniques (e.g., murus gallicus, vitrified walls) spread along trade and conquest routes, showing how hillfort builders watched—and copied—one another across great distances.