Hembury

Hembury is a Neolithic causewayed enclosure and Iron Age hillfort near Honiton in Devon. It stands on a south-facing promontory at the end of a ridge 240 metres high in the Blackdown Hills. The fort overlooks the River Otter valley and commands wide views of the surrounding countryside. Its position was chosen both for sightlines and defence. The Devon Archaeological Society bought the hillfort in 2022. Excavations between 1930 and 1935 by Dorothy Liddell uncovered a timber entrance and an oval ring of postholes that she believed marked a burnt building. Finds included Neolithic pottery, flints, axes, querns and charred grain. In the 1980s Malcolm Todd’s team found traces of Roman military occupation within the Iron Age ramparts. The site gave its name to Hembury ware, some of the earliest Neolithic pottery in southern Britain. Visitors walk the grassy ramparts of the Iron Age fort and the surrounding causewayed enclosure. The ridge top offers long views across the Blackdown Hills and down to the Otter valley. Information boards explain the Neolithic timber entrance and the oval posthole arrangement. Nearby lie fragments of Hembury ware pottery in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. The hillfort remains a quiet place to stand where layers of history meet the landscape.