Bury Ditches Iron Age Hillfort

Bury Ditches hillfort is located in the south west of Shropshire between Bishops Castle and Clun.

Bury Ditches hillfort is located in the south west of Shropshire between Bishops Castle and Clun. It was once a heavily defended settlement of around 2.6 hectares (6.4 acres). The structure dates to the first Millennium BC and would have been a centre of habitation with people living in simple round huts within the hillfort defences.

The extent of the site and the layout of its defences were largely unknown until 1976 when heavy storms blew down trees on the hilltop and large scale tree clearance was undertaken by the Forestry Commission.

It was revealed that Bury Ditches was a multi-vallate hillfort, which means that it was defended by a series of ditches and ramparts, which in some places would have reached a height of 7 metres. On the north side of the hillfort where the hillside is less steep, and so offers less natural protection, there are as many as 4 or 5 successive banks with intervening ditches. The defensive banks overlapped at the rear entrance to provide further protection from enemy attacks.

The entrance at Bury Ditches is a classic example of an ‘in-turned’ entrance, where the ramparts (banks) turn back on themselves to form an internal passage. The in-turned entrance at Bury Ditches leads into a 40m long passage. It was designed to draw the enemy into small internal space where they could be dealt with efficiently by the defenders who could attack from the ramparts above.