Eggardon Hill

Eggardon Hill
Dorset
Eggardon Hill from the southwest
Range:	Dorset Downs
Summit:	826 feet SY541947 50°45’0"N, 2°39’2"W

Eggardon Hill marks the western extremity of the Dorset Downs. It is a hill of the chalk uplands of southern Dorset, approximately four miles to the east of Bridport. It rises to a summit 827 feet above sea level.

The summit provides panoramic views to the south, north and west and is crowned by an Iron Age hill fort.

The southern half of the hill is owned and maintained by The National Trust, which permits free public access throughout the year, while the northern part in private ownership.

Name

The name Eggardon is derived from an Old English place name, reconstructed as Eohheres dun, meaning Eohhere's Hill. Dun is frequently used for a rounded hill or one bearing a fort, as at Eggardon.

History

Eggardon Hill is first documented in the Domesday Book of 1086. From about 300 BC, it was used as a hill fort — an Iron Age defended settlement. Whether occupation continued up to the Roman conquest of Dorset, and whether it ceased as at many others, ids not known as Eggardon Hill itself never been excavated by archaeologists.

The presence of several barrows on the hill provides another indication of prehistoric use.

The notorious smuggler Isaac Gulliver (1745-1822) (who owned Eggardon Hill Farm) is reputed to have planted a stand of pine trees on Eggardon Hill, to provide an aid to navigation for his ships as they approached the Dorset coast. Although the trees were later felled on government orders, the octagonal earthworks used to protect them from the elements are still visible today, and marked on Ordnance Survey maps of the area.

Eggardon Hill from the southeest

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Eggardon Hill)