Hardown Hill
| Hardown Hill | |
| Dorset | |
|---|---|
 Hardown Hill from the south near Golden Cap | |
| Summit: | 679 feet SY406944 50°44’48"N, 2°50’33"W |
Hardown Hill is a hill of 679 feet standing between Ryall and Morcombelake in Dorset. It rises west of the South Dorset Downs, close to the Dorset coast, and overlooks the Marshwood Vale to the north. Its prominence qualifies it as one of Dorset's four 'Marilyns' and it has been listed as one of the "top 12 Dorset views to take your breath away" by Dorset's tourism body.
The hill sits about four miles west of Bridport, with the A35 road running below its south slope. It is not nearly as well known as its southern extremity, Golden Cap, which is a spectacular bluff on the coast, a mile to the south.
The top of the hill, which is owned by the National Trust, and from here there are impressive views that take in Thorncombe Beacon, Chardown Hill, Quarry Hill and Langdon Hill.
There is a group of ten barrows, mostly covered in gorse and bracken, about 300 yards north of the summit above the hamlet of Ryall.[1] These barrows are thought to be of disc and bowl form, likely dating to the Bronze Age.[2]
Wyatt Wingrave excavated fifteen artefacts dating to the Early Middle Ages in 1916, which he interpreted as the associated objects of an early Anglo-Saxon inhumation burial.[3] No skeletal remains were found, and it is not clear which of the barrows was excavated. Vera Evison later reinterpreted the assemblage as a group of Anglo-Saxon burials that represented secondary interments in a Bronze Age barrow.[4] A recent consideration of the context and a reclassification of the artefacts has cast doubts on the burial interpretation, and has instead interpreted the assemblage as a hoard.[5]
Pictures
-
Hardown Hill from the road to Ryall -
Hardown Hill and Morcombelake from Golden Cap -
From Hardown Hill looking east -
Looking north-west over Whitechurch Canonicorum -
Looking west towards the Dorset coast -
Summit area
References
- ↑ Hardown Hill at www.themodernantiquarian.com. Accessed on 22 Mar 2013.
- ↑ Grinsell, L.V. 1959. Dorset Barrows. Dorchester: Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, p.142.
- ↑ Wingrave, W. 1931. ‘An Anglo-Saxon burial on Hardown Hill’, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 53. 247–9.
- ↑ Evison, V.I. 1968. ‘The Anglo-Saxon finds from Hardown Hill’, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 90. 232–40.
- ↑ Austin, M. 2014. 'Rethinking Hardown Hill: Our Westernmost Early Anglo-Saxon Cemetery?', Antiquaries Journal, 94. 49-69