A Neolithic hilltop settlement dating from about 3700BC. The site was used for thousands of years; as excavations turned up Neolithic remains, Bronze Age axes, golden Celtic coins, Roman coins, and later artifacts.
Carn Brea,
Near Redruth,
Cornwall,
England,
There are a number of so-called 'ancient villages' in the southwest of England. Perhaps the most well known is Chysauster, but just a short distance away from Chysauster is Carn Euny, one of the best preserved village sites in Cornwall. The village was occupied from the Iron Age to the late Roman period, and the remains include stone foundations of domestic buildings and an undergound passage of the type known as a fogou.
Brane,
Cornwall,
England
Stone circle in a magnificent meadow setting. Not as large, or as well known as Stonehenge, but sit here as the sun goes down and try not to feel awed. Castlerigg was one of the first stone circles built in Britain, dating from about 3000 BC. The circle actually isn't (isn't a circle, that is), with one side flattened and a large gap between two huge stones on the north side, which suggests an entrance of some sort. There is a small rectangle of stones within the circle, an unusual feature in stone circles. There is also a small mound inside the circle, which suggests a burial place.
Keswick,
Cumbria,
England
A 200 foot high figure of a man bearing a club, incised into the chalk of the hillside. The giant has been variously identified as Roman, Celtic, and Iron Age. His obvious, um, physical endowments have made him the source of fertility practices over the centuries; it is said that if an infertile woman spends the night within the figure, she will then be able to bear a child.
Cerne Abbas,
Near Dorchester,
Dorset,
England
An Iron Age hillfort that was later used as a Roman religious site. Chanctonbury sits atop a hill in the chalk downland of West Sussex. The earliest known use of the site occurred in the Bronze Age, about 1500 BCE, with the burial of a young woman, who was interred with a bronze dagger beside her.
Findon,
West Sussex,
England
An Iron Age hillfort which was later occupied during the Roman period. The hillfort is 14 acres in size, with two, or, in some places, three sets of banks and ditch defenses. Iron Age beads were found in the centre of the site, near later Roman pottery.
Chisbury,
Wiltshire,
England
Chysauster was an Iron Age village inhabited from about 100 BC to sometime in the 3rd century AD. It was probably built by members of the Dumnonii tribe of Cornish Britons. The village is composed of eight courtyard houses, laid out in two rows of four. Outside the main grouping of houses is another stone house, and there are the remains of several outlying buildings in the surrounding fields.
Gulval,
Cornwall,
England,
TR20 8XA
A very large Iron Age hillfort set on a chalk promontory of the South Downs, Cissbury Ring was built around 300 BCE as a series of earthwork banks and ditches surrounding a level area of about 65 acres in size. It is the second-largest hillfort in England, second only in size to Maiden Castle in Dorset.
Findon,
West Sussex,
England
An almost intact Neolithic long barrow in the Medway Valley of Kent. The barrow is probably the best preserved in Kent; it measures an impressive 30 metres long by 18 metres wide (about 95 feet by 55 feet), and is surrounded by 15 sarsen stones arranged in a circle. When the site was excavated in the early 20th century the bones of 22 people were found. These remains can now be seen at the Maidstone Museum.
Trottiscliffe,
Kent,
England
Danes Dyke is a bank and ditch earthwork 'wall' which cut off Flamborough peninsula from the mainlaind. Despite the name, the Dyke has nothing to do with the Danes! The exact date of construction is uncertain; some sources put it squarely in the Iron Age (pre-Roman) while others suggest similarities to post-Roman earthworks. and was intended as a defensive structure to protect headland settlements.
B1255,
Sewerby,
Yorkshire,
England
A series of bell and bowl barrows also known as The King's Graves, set atop Bow Hill, in Kingley Vale. The site has also been classed as a barrow cemetery. It takes a good climb to reach the barrows from the car parking area at West Stoke.
Chichester,
West Sussex,
England
Duggleby Howe is a circular round barrow, one of the largest such monuments in England. Artefacts recovered during excavations of the Howe suggest that it was built in the late Neolithic period, but no definitive date has yet been determined. The base of the barrow measures 120 feet in diameter, rising to a level area some 47 feet across. The height is 22 feet at the east and it slopes down to 18 feet at the east.
B1253,
Duggleby,
Yorkshire,
England
Otherwise known as Hinton Hillfort this Iron Age fortification is the traditional site of the Battle of Dyrham in 577AD. In this battle, according to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, the Saxons led by "Cuthwine and Ceawlin fought against the Britons and slew three kings, Coinmail, Condidan and Farimail at the place which is called Dyrham; and they captured three cities, Gloucester, Cirencester and Bath". Though the site of the battle is not known, what is very clear is the spectacular location of the hillfort, with wonderful views towards Wales. The best place to view the hillfort is from the National Trust property of Dyrham Park. Beside the hillfort are remnants of medieval strip lychets, also best seen from Dyrham Park.
Hinton,
Cotswolds,
Gloucestershire,
England
Archaeology discovery centre built around the remains of a huge complex of Bronze Age and Iron Age remains. The Bronze Age settlers here built a long trackway across the fens, and sections of the trackway can be seen in place. A museum shows finds from the site, and there are reconstructed Bronze Age and Iron Age huts.
The Droveway,
Northey Road Peterborough,
Cambridgeshire,
England,
PE6 7QJ
A trio of Bronze Age burial mounds and a sarsen stone. The mounds were originally part of a larger cemetery of barrows, of which little trace remains.
B3049,
Littletown,
Hampshire,
England
A recumbent stone circle lying at the foot of Knott Scar, one mile east of the village of Orton, in the west of Cumbria's Eden Valley. The stones form a flattened circle, or oval, about 45 x 38 metres in circumference. There were originally 40 stones, but of these only 33 remain.
Knott Lane,
Orton,
Cumbria,
England
Grimes Graves is one of the most fascinating Neolithic sites in Britain. Despite its name, it is not a grave, or burial place, but a flint mine worked between about 2200 and 2500 BC. Located in open heath country near Thetford Forest, Grimes Graves consists of over 350 hollows in the ground marking the location of the former mine shafts.
Some of the shafts are sunk as deep as 30 feet below the surface - a remarkable accomplishment when you consider that the Neolithic miners used antlers for picks and animal shoulder-blades for shovels. On one of the antler picks found at Grimes Graves archaeologists found a miner's fingerprint - still intact after 4000 years! The mines here produced weapons and tools distributed as far away as Scotland.
Thetford,
Norfolk,
England
An impressive Bronze Age settlement of on Dartmoor. Grimspound featured in the Sherlock Holmes story, 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.
Challacombe,
Moretonhampstead,
Dartmoor,
Devon,
England
An underground chamber believed to date from the 4th or 5th century BCE. The chamber was in use until sometime in the 2nd century AD. The fogou is located within an enclosing earthwork, possibly an Iron Age settlement.
Mawgan,
Cornwall,
England
A Neolithic henge and mound, located beside the River Avon. The henge is bounded by a bank and internal ditch, and encloses an area of about 35 acres. The earthworks are incomplete, especially on the southwest facing river side of the site, and there are two causewayed entrances.
Marden,
Wiltshire,
England
Hob Hurst's House is a prehistoric burial chamber, unusual in that it is rectangular in shape, roughly 8 x 7.5 m and 1 m high.
Baslow,
Derbyshire,
England
King Doniert's Stone consists of the remains of two richly carved 9th century Celtic crosses. The crosses commemorate the Celtic king Dumgarth, who ruled the kingdon of Dumnonia until he died by drowning about 875 AD.
St Cleer,
Cornwall,
England
A stone circle dating to the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age. The circle is composed of 18 stones, all fallen. The location is wonderful; the stone circle is set on a chalk hill top overlooking the sea and nearby Abbotsbury village.
Abbotsbury,
Dorset,
England
Attraction Type:
Prehistoric Heritage Rating:? Location: 2 miles north of Abbotsbury. The circle is located on the MacMillan Way footpath. Not signposted. Use OS Landranger map LR194 (Dorchester/Weymouth)
The remains of a dolmen burial chamber, consisting of three upright stones and a capstone. The capstone is huge, about 4 metres by 2.7 metres in width. Nearby is Little Kit's Coty, also known as the Countless Stones.
Aylesford,
Kent,
England
A fascinating historic site consisting of a ruined medieval church standing within the remains of a Neolithic henge earthwork. The juxtaposition of the Norman church and the prehistoric henge monument represents a quite striking combination of Christian and pre-Christian history.
Lumber Lane,
Knowlton,
Dorset,
England
The quoit consists of one large stone supported upon three standing stones. It is likely the remains of a long barrow, or chambered tomb.
Madron,
Cornwall,
England
A network of Iron Age earthwork banks and ditches built to protect Camulodunum the pre-Roman town of Colchester. Nearby are a series of pre-Roman burial sites. Among these is the Lexden Tumulus, traditionally thought to be the grave of the British chief Cunobelinus.
Lexden Straight Road,
Colchester,
Essex,
England
A prehistoric burial site, now little more than confused jumble of sarsen stones.Little Kit's Cotyy stands about 450 metres south of the Kit's Coty House dolmen. This site is also known as Countless Stones.
Aylesford,
Kent,
England
Remains of a keb cairn, sometimes (wrongly) called a stone circle. the cairn consists of 11 stones, most fallen, around a central raised area. An excavation in 1866 revealed a burial cist with an urn containing cremated remains. The stones of the cist had cup and ring marks - one of these stones is now in Penrith Museum. The original cairn would have been covered with turf and ranged about 9.5 metres by 8 metres.
Little Salkeld,
Cumbria,
England
The largest and most famous pre-Roman fortress in Britain. The site is nearly 100 acres in size, with banks as high as 80 feet enclosing a hill-top site of some 45 acres. It was inhabited as early as the Bronze Age, but most of the visible ramparts were erected in the 1st century BC. In 43 AD the Romans besieged the "castle". The defenders huge store of some 40,000 sling stones proved useless against the Roman's leather shields, and the site fell to the invaders. A mass grave of defenders who died in the assault was found in 1937 near the eastern entrance. A site worth seeing.
Dorchester,
Dorset,
England
Membury hill fort has to be among the largest hill forts in the country, being more than 400 metres across. It consists of a treed rampart enclosing a large field and a pond, surrounded by trees, quite a strange feature in a hill fort.
Membury,
Wiltshire,
England
Attraction Type:
Prehistoric Heritage Highlight: One of the largest hillforts in the country in area Heritage Rating:? Location: The hillfort lies immediately west of Membury airfield and the Membury Services on the M4
OSSU297753 Nearest
attractions and accommodation Nearest:hotels - cottages - Bed
and Breakfasts
An intriguing monument consisting of two upright stones standing on either side of a round stone with a hole through the middle.
Madron,
Cornwall,
England
A superb prehistoric site on western Dartmoor. Merrivale is not one monument, but a multitude of monuments sharing the same wonderfully scenic location. Here you will find the remains of a Bronze Age settlement, two stone rows, solitary standing stones, burial cairns, and a stone circle.
B3357,
Merrivale,
Devon,
England
A circle of 19 small stones in a field near Lamorna, on the Lands End to Newlyn road. This is probably the best preserved of all the stone circles in Cornwall, and it is, unusually, believed to be complete and unaltered.
Lamorna,
Cornwall,
England
A stone circle set on a plateau on the Shropshire border with Wales, between Corndon Hill and Stapeley Hill, offering fantastic panoramic views over the Black Mountains of Wales to the west. An outlying stone stands to the south of the circle.
Priest Weston,
Shropshire,
England
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