Danish Camp

Danish Camp is an Iron Age hillfort in Shoeburyness, Essex. It stands inside Gunners Park and Shoebury Ranges nature reserve, managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust. The site is a Scheduled Monument under the Ancient Monuments Act. Two low banks remain from the original defences, one about 80 metres long and 2 metres high. Pottery from 400 to 200 BC and the remains of four round houses have been found here. Earlier Mesolithic and Bronze Age traces also appear around the edges of the site. The name comes from a belief that Viking leader Hastein built a fort here in 894. No Viking objects have been discovered, so he may have reused the existing camp. The land was farmland until the Board of Ordnance bought it in 1849. Some earthworks were lost then or to coastal erosion later. Roman pottery has turned up in the south-west corner. Visitors walk between Ness Road and Warrior Square Road to reach the site. The surviving banks and hollows show where the Iron Age settlement once stood. The surrounding nature reserve offers grassland and coastal views. The area remains quiet, with no modern buildings on the monument itself.