Scratchbury Camp

Scratchbury Camp stands on Scratchbury Hill above the Wylye valley in Wiltshire. It is an Iron Age hillfort covering 15 hectares at the edge of Salisbury Plain. The fort’s four-sided shape follows the hill’s natural contours. A smaller earlier enclosure lies at its centre, dating from around 250 BC or even the Bronze Age. Seven burial mounds dot the interior, excavated in the 19th century by Sir Richard Colt Hoare and William Cunnington. The site is worth visiting for its well-preserved earthworks and archaeological layers. The ramparts reach up to 6 metres high in places, with ditches up to 8 metres wide. Traces of about 100 roundhouse platforms survive inside the fort. Finds include Roman artefacts and Neolithic axe heads now in Devizes museum. The hillfort is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest, noted for its chalk downland flora. Visitors walk along the ramparts and explore the interior hollows marking former homes. The western side shows the deepest ditches and highest banks. Two original entrances remain on the eastern side, linked by a narrow ridge called Burberry. On clear days the views stretch across the Wylye valley to Salisbury Plain. The earlier D-shaped enclosure’s remains can still be traced near the centre.