Oldbury hillfort

Oldbury Camp (also known as Oldbury hill fort) is the largest Iron Age hill fort in south-eastern England. It was built in the 1st century BC by Celtic British tribes on a hilltop west of Ightham, Kent, in a strategic location overlooking routes through the Kentish Weald. The fort comprises a bank and ditch enclosing an area of about 50 hectares (120 acres), with entrances at the north-east and south ends. Wooden gates barred the entrances. Archaeological excavations carried out in the 1930s and 1980s found that the hill fort's interior had probably not been permanently occupied. It had been abandoned around 50 BC and the north-east gate had been burned down, possibly due to a Roman invasion. The wooded southern part of Oldbury Camp is now owned and managed by the National Trust and is open to the public.

Oldbury Camp is located near the village of Ightham, Kent. It is situated on the summit of Oldbury Hill, a partly wooded plateau on a north-south alignment on the Greensand Ridge. It is bounded by very steep natural cliffs on the eastern side, with commanding views over one of the main routes through the Weald. The hill fort covers an area of around 50 hectares (120 acres) and is of the multivallate type; while its defences mostly comprise a single bank and ditch surrounding the north, west and south of the hilltop, in a few places the bank is doubled to provide extra defences. The bank probably originally stood about 10 metres (33 ft) high, though it survives only to a height of about 1 metre (3 ft 3 in), while the ditch is up to 3.5 metres (11 ft) wide and is situated about 3 metres (9.8 ft) below the bank's crest.

At least two entrances were constructed, on the north-east and southern ends of the hill fort. A spring is located near the centre of the site and would have ensured a constant supply of fresh water for the hill fort's defenders. Overhangs and hollows in the rocks on the eastern side of the hill fort were occupied as long ago as the Middle Palaeolithic period and are now known as the Oldbury rock shelters.

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