1. A rampart and ditch cut off a tapering, cliff-top promontory enclosure, 108m deep and about 80m across between the rampart terminals, having a centrally placed causewayed entrance, south of which a second bank and ditch form a tapering annex; the natural terracing of the interior, trending down towards the west, has suggested building platforms. (source Os495card; SM81SW16)
RCAHMW 16.05.02
2. Royal Commission aerial reconnaissance for the EU-Funded CHERISH Project on 5th Feb 2018 showed clear evidence for 4 or 5 hut scoops within the interuior of this coastal promontory fort. The interior does not appear to have lost any significant sections on the northern side to recent erosion, so the interior and hut scoops here may be substantially intact. Image refs: CHE 5 Feb 2018 004-006.
T. Driver, RCAHMW, 2024
3. Field visit 6th February 2025 and revised description
A small but remarkably complex prehistoric coastal promontory fort, occupying a blunt sloping coastal bluff which falls from 45m O.D. at its highest point where the ramparts stand, dropping steadily downslope to 30m O.D. at the lowest point of the settled interior. The interior encloses 0.5ha.
The ramparts appear to result from at least two main phases of construction. Perhaps the earliest was a dramatic L-shaped rampart, running virtually straight for 60m in a south-west/north-east direction across the highest point before angling due west to run some 70m down the coastal slopes to the cliff edge. The rock-cut outer ditch is approximately 8m wide and 2m deep. It fades out to virtually nothing at its south-western edge, and is most pronounced at the north-eastern angle of the earthwork.
This appears to have been cut directly across by a later curving rampart built within the first, to the west of it, and running almost due north across the top of the slope for 48m before dropping sharply downhill for a further 45m to intercept the cliff edge on the north side. This – apparently later – rampart is an extremely steep, high earthwork standing 4-5m externally with a rock-cut outer ditch still some 2m deep.
The main gate appears to stand at the intersection of these two earthworks, surviving today as a simple gap through the inner rampart. Each rampart on the north side focuses in on this spot and heightens the monumental appearance of the earthworks for those approaching from the east.
There is good evidence for a series of rock cut house platforms within the fort, despite a thick undergrowth of bracken interspersed with thick blackthorn and brambles. These building traces include a possible deep platform against the inner west angle of the steep inner rampart, although it is currently too overgrown with blackthorn to investigate. On the gently sloping upper section of the interior to the west of the ramparts are two further large D-shaped house platforms, 7m deep and 8m across, with rock-cut rear walls. The ground then slopes more steeply down towards the sea, with at least two more rock-cut platforms evident. The lower of the two is around 8m wide but more narrow – 4m deep – and rectangular in layout; its rock cut rear wall stands some 2-3m high.
Two or three prominent rock outcrops and small rock shelters characterise the lower slopes of the interior above the sea cliffs, and may have been utilised or considered important in prehistory.
The general condition of the promontory fort, and particularly its major earthwork ramparts, is one of dense undergrowth and impenetrable thorns and brambles, making ground investigation challenging.
Visited on 6th February 2025, with drone aerial photography completed.
Dr Toby Driver, RCAHMW, February 2025