Defended promontory.


When first surveyed by the Ordnance Survey in 1868, the most obvious features on the site were the large, grass-covered bank, standing 3.5m high and 5m wide, and the less substantial remains of a rectangular building behind it on the promontory. The scale of the bank led to an assumption that it represented a prehistoric burial mound, a belief compounded by its name, which translates as 'hill of the dead'.


Excavation in 1950-51 found that the promontory had first been protected by a timber stockade, which was later replaced by a timber-reinforced earthen rampart. A ditch had also been excavated in front of the bank, to a depth of about 1m below modern ground-level; the ditch was spanned by a causeway at the west end to allow access to the headland. The rampart was further augmented by a timber platform, or raised walkway.


The defensive site so created was considered to be of Iron Age character, though no features of this period were identified within the site. Several residual finds, however, confirm an Iron Age presence.