{"id":276,"date":"2013-10-29T12:32:38","date_gmt":"2013-10-29T12:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/?page_id=276"},"modified":"2026-02-27T13:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T13:16:23","slug":"dolbury-hillfort","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/explore-and-learn\/explore-devons-heritage\/dolbury-hillfort\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolbury Hillfort, Killerton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dolbury Hillfort is a Scheduled Monument thought to date to the early Iron Age, around 600 BC.&nbsp; It is located on a 120m high hilltop overlooking the River Culm, within the grounds of Killerton House, Broadclyst.&nbsp; The location of hillforts was chosen for their natural defence, such as steep slopes at the end of a spur or cliff edges of a coastal promontory.&nbsp; Located on a high point gave many advantages such as protecting cattle from theft and providing advance warning of enemy attacks. Early hillforts usually consisted of a single earth or stone rampart with a simple entrance, with some forts subsequently developing into much larger ones, being protected by multiple defensive banks and ditches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-medium\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/184\/2013\/10\/Dolbury-Hillfort.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" src=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/184\/2013\/10\/Dolbury-Hillfort-240x180.jpg\" alt=\"Dolbury Hillfort ramparts, Killerton (\u00a9 S.Reed)\" class=\"wp-image-277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/184\/2013\/10\/Dolbury-Hillfort-240x180.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/184\/2013\/10\/Dolbury-Hillfort-800x600.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/184\/2013\/10\/Dolbury-Hillfort.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dolbury hillfort is thought to represent two phases of construction.&nbsp; The initial phase would be the enclosure of the ridge occupying the eastern half of the area, the higher and most defensible part.&nbsp; Around the north and east sides of the ridge the steep slopes may have negated the need for earthwork defences.&nbsp; No obvious entrance can be determined.&nbsp;&nbsp; The second phase involved the incorporation of the western plateau, with scarping, as well as an insubstantial outer ditch.&nbsp; The lack of a proper rampart bank may indicate palisading, or possibly a degree of incompletion. The main entrance on the north of overlapping type is distinctive and remarkably strong in spite of, perhaps 19th century or later levelling.&nbsp;&nbsp; Occupying slightly lower ground in the west part is a well-defended enclosure built after the completion of the main hillfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The whole area of the hillfort and enclosure suffered some disturbance during the 18th century when the area was heavily planted with trees; this included the creation of Dolbury Clump (on the higher ground of the hillfort), which is a well known feature of Killerton Park. Despite the trees and undergrowth the earthworks are generally impressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Owned by the National Trust, access is on foot from Killerton House by gates at the top of the garden, or by footpath from the south-east through the park.&nbsp; A National Trust car park is located at Killerton House.&nbsp; The park is registered Grade II* in the English Heritage register of Historic Parks and Gardens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For more information, see the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heritagegateway.org.uk\/Gateway\/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MDV1312&amp;resourceID=104\" rel=\"noopener\">Historic Environment Record information about this site on Heritage Gateway<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dolbury Hillfort is a Scheduled Monument thought to date to the early Iron Age, around 600 BC.&nbsp; It is located on a 120m high hilltop overlooking the River Culm, within the grounds of Killerton House, Broadclyst.&nbsp; The location of hillforts was chosen for their natural defence, such as steep slopes at the end of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"parent":238,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-276","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-06 20:21:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4678,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/276\/revisions\/4678"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/historic-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}