Badbury Rings

Badbury Rings stands on a low hill in east Dorset, a grassy Iron Age hill fort with three ramparts still rising above the surrounding fields. The site sits 327 feet above sea level and covers up to 16.6 hectares in its later phase. Bronze Age burial mounds nearby show people used the land long before the fort was built. The National Trust now owns the hill fort, which was once part of the Kingston Lacy estate. Archaeologists cleared undergrowth in 1997 to reveal hut sites inside the ramparts. Excavations led by Martin Papworth in 2004 found mostly Late Iron Age pottery. The hill fort lies at the centre of a chain of Iron Age earthworks stretching from Hambledon Hill to Dudsbury Camp. Five Roman roads met on its northern edge, linking the fort to forts at Hod Hill and Lake Farm. One road ran south to a small port in Poole Harbour while another headed southwest towards Dorchester. A Romano-Celtic temple stood immediately west of the fort, excavated in 1900 and 1952. Finds included over 185 Roman coins and painted wall-plaster from the 1st to 5th centuries. Visitors walk the grassy ramparts and look across the Dorset countryside from the summit. The polygonal boundary of the temple site can still be seen on aerial photographs. A Romano-British town called Vindocladia lay 1.5 kilometres southwest, now buried beneath fields near Shapwick. The town covered 25 hectares and was one of Dorset’s largest Roman settlements. A rectangular fort with triple ditches stood on its east side, possibly a mansio for imperial travellers. The site offers quiet views of the surrounding landscape and traces of ancient roads still visible as lines of trees.