Pilsdon Pen
| Pilsdon Pen | |
| Dorset | |
|---|---|
 Pilsdon Pen from the southeast | |
| Summit: | 909 feet ST413011 50°48’23"N, 2°50’4"W |
Pilsdon Pen is a hill of 909 feet in the west of Dorset. The hill stands at the north end of the Marshwood Vale, approximately four and a half miles west of Beaminster.
This is Dorset's second highest point, exceeded only by Lewesdon Hill (915 feet), and has panoramic views extending for many miles. Indeed for many years Pilsdon Hill was thought to be Dorset's highest, until modern survey revealed that nearby Lewesdon Hill was six feet higher.[1]
The hill was bequeathed to the National Trust by the Pinney family in 1982.
Geology
The hill is a lower greensand Cretaceous outcrop situated amongst Jurassic strata of marl and clay, at the border between the chalk of the south-eastern counties and the granite of Devon and Cornwall.
Archaeology
The hill is topped by an Iron Age multivallate hill fort, believed to have been created by the Durotriges tribe. The fort which was excavated in the 1960s by Peter Gelling of the University of Birmingham with his wife Margaret Gelling at the request of Michael Pinney. The remains of 14 roundhouses were uncovered near the centre of the hill fort. Surveys were also carried out by the National Trust in 1982 and by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England in 1995.[2]
There are differing views as to the age of the rectilinear (square) structures in the centre of the fort: they may be mediæval "pillow mounds" (man-made mounds for breeding rabbits), or could be earlier in origin. There is no clear evidence to distinguish the other mounds between pillow mounds and burial mounds, and the acid soil causes almost all bone and pottery to be in very poor condition. The National Trust in the 1982 excavations (which restored the mounds to their original profile prior to Gelling's excavation) viewed them as mediæval; Gelling thought there was a case they were earlier. Additional rectilinear structures are noted in the 1999 National Trust Resistivity survey.
Landscape
Other notable high points in the vicinity are Lewesdon Hill (915 feet), Dorset's county top some two and a half miles to the east, and Blackdown Hill (705 feet), about a mile to the north-west.
Dorothy and William Wordsworth
In 1795–7 Dorothy and William Wordsworth lived at Racedown House—a property of the Pinney family—to the west of Pilsdon Pen. They walked in the area for about two hours every day, and the nearby hills—including Pilsdon Pen—consoled Dorothy as she pined for the fells of her native Lakeland. She wrote,
"We have hills which, seen from a distance almost take the character of mountains, some cultivated nearly to their summits, others in their wild state covered with furze and broom. These delight me the most as they remind me of our native wilds."[3]
Outside links
References
- ↑ Muir, Johnny: 'The UK's County Tops' (Cicerone, 2011) p. 26. ISBN 978-1-85284-629-9
- ↑ National Heritage List 1019394: Pilsdon Pen hillfort and associated remains
- ↑ Roland Gant (1980). Dorset Villages. Robert Hale Ltd. pp. 111–112. ISBN 0 7091 8135 3.
- Gelling, P. S. 1977: Excavations on Pilsdon Pen, Dorset, 1964-71. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 43, 263-286.
- Publications of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society - Excavations at Pilsdon Pen, P.S.Gelling, 86 102; 87 90; 88 106-107; 89 123-125; 90 166-167; 91 177-178; 92 126-127; 93 133-134
- Publications of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society - Excavations at Pilsdon Pen Hillfort, 1982, D.W.R.Thackray, 104 178-179