Croft Ambrey

Croft Ambrey is an Iron Age hill fort on Yatton Hill in Herefordshire, near the Welsh border. It stands on high ground above the valley of a tributary to Allcock’s Brook, overlooking Yatton Marsh. The nearest villages are Yarpole, Aymestrey and Yatton, with the Mortimer Trail passing close by. The fort sits within the parkland of Croft Castle, managed by the National Trust. Its position gives wide views across the surrounding countryside. The hillfort was occupied from the 6th century BC until AD 48, with a population once estimated at between 500 and 900 people. Excavations between 1960 and 1966 uncovered closely set rectangular buildings rebuilt up to six times. Finds included iron tools, weapons, shale and glass objects, bone artefacts and Iron Age pottery. Two complex entrances once had twenty gateposts, guardrooms and bridges, with the south-western entrance serving as the main gateway. A southern rectangular annexe was added later, defined by two slighter banks. Visitors walk along the surviving scarps and ramparts that form the roughly triangular enclosure. The site includes a Romano-Celtic temple within an annexe and traces of a medieval warren with pillow mounds on the summit. The Mortimer Trail provides a waymarked long-distance footpath that passes the fort, offering clear routes through the surrounding landscape. The views from the hilltop stretch across the valley and marshes below.