Blewburton Hill

Blewburton Hill stands in Oxfordshire’s rolling farmland, between the villages of Aston Tirrold and Blewbury. It is the remains of an Iron Age hillfort built on a low summit that rises above the surrounding fields. The site once held a small timber stockade before the fort was constructed around the 4th century BC. Later the ramparts were strengthened and the ditch deepened before the fort was finally abandoned about 50 BC. Anglo-Saxon settlers used the hilltop as a cemetery centuries afterwards. The hillfort covers about four hectares and once had an entrance protected by a ditch and timber gates. Excavations found horse burials near the gateway and evidence of a violent end to its occupation. The rampart was built from chalk packed between timber supports and measured over six metres wide in places. Finds include Neolithic flints, Iron Age pottery, a polished stone axe and Roman pottery fragments from later centuries. Visitors walk among grassy ramparts that still curve around the hilltop. The western side shows surviving lynchets and a terrace where the old ditch once stood. In the east the rampart has been damaged by ploughing, yet parts remain visible. The interior is open farmland with a few scattered coppices to the south and northeast. The site is quiet, with wide views across the Oxfordshire countryside.