Allabury Camp slight univallate hillfort 425m WNW of West Castick Farm

Reasons for Designation

Bodmin Moor, the largest of the Cornish granite uplands, has long been recognised to have exceptional preservation of archaeological remains. The Moor has been the subject of detailed archaeological survey and is one of the best recorded upland landscapes in England. The extensive relict landscapes of prehistoric, medieval and post-medieval date provide direct evidence for human exploitation of the Moor from the earliest prehistoric period onwards. The well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, field systems, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains provides significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land use through time.

Slight univallate hillforts are defended enclosures situated towards or on the top of a hill and defined by a single line of earthworks, usually enclosing an area under 10 hectares. They form one of a range of known types of fortified enclosure dating to the later Bronze Age and Iron Age (c.1000 BC - 50 AD). They present a considerable variety of enclosure shapes and entrance forms and have been viewed in various roles including permanent settlements, centres for trade and exchange, refuges in times of crisis and stock enclosures. Where excavated, structures found within the enclosures have included round, square or rectangular houses, usually post-built but sometimes of stone, storage pits, hearths, and scatters of post and stake holes and gullies. The material recovered from excavations has included human burials, domestic debris and evidence for small-scale industrial activities such as bronze and iron working. Ramparts may be formed simply from dumped earth and rubble, or a dry-stone wall, or they may have a more complex structure with timber or stone retaining walls or various types of internal reinforcements. Most excavated examples have also revealed post-holes for gate structures in the rampart entrances. About 150 slight univallate hillforts are recorded nationally, commonest in central southern England, the Chilterns, south-west England, the Cotswolds and the Welsh Marches, with lesser numbers in central and northern England. They are nationally rare monuments which contribute significantly to our knowledge of settlement types and economic and social developments in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. Consequently all such monuments which show good evidence typical of the known types and their regional variations will normally be considered of national importance,

Allabury Camp survives well; it has not been excavated, and displays an almost complete circuit of well-preserved defences, and evidence for intact sub-surface features. Its relatively small size and location on a spur overlooking a steep river valley is typical of the south-western hillforts.

Details

The monument includes a small, later Prehistoric hillfort, defended by a single bank and outer ditch and incorporating two original entrances. The hillfort is situated on a slight terrace on a spur projecting north from the NE end of the Hawkstor Downs on the eastern edge of Bodmin Moor, overlooking the steep narrow valley of the Withey Brook near its confluence with the River Lynher. The hillfort is defined by a single earth and rubble rampart, surviving up to 2.5m high and 10m wide, on whose outer side is a ditch, up to 1.5m deep and 8m wide, forming a well-defined feature around the hillfort's south, east and north sides, and visible as a shallow, silted, slope-break along its western side. These earthwork defences enclose a D-shaped internal area encompassing 0.95 hectares and measuring 120m north-south by 90m east- west. The defences are interrupted by two original entrances. The entrance in the SE sector is 5m wide and flanked by the parallel, in-turned ends of the rampart which extend for 10m into the hill fort interior. The other original entrance, in the NW sector, is visible as a simple break in the rampart, 5m wide, with a slight thickening of the rampart to each side. This entrance is now closed by a modern field wall on a slight hedge-bank crossing the inner side of the gap. Two other breaks in the rampart, at the SW and NE corners of the hillfort, are recent, corresponding to gated access points to neighbouring fields. The NE break has produced an eroded section through the rampart showing clearly its heaped rubble core. The hillfort interior presents a featureless surface with occasional uncleared boulders, sloping gently to the north and conforming with the natural hillslope however the presence of intact buried features has been evidenced by vegetation marks under dry conditions and several flint artefacts have been recovered from animal burrows at the hillfort. All modern drystone walls, gates and post-and-wire fencing, the surface of the modern drainage ditch along the hillfort's western edge and the modern field barn beyond the hillfort's SE entrance are excluded from the scheduling but the land beneath them, including earthen hedge-banks, is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

15161

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
Mercer, R J, AM7 scheduling description for Allabury Camp (CO 885), 1972,
Consulted 12/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1172,
Sheppard, P A, Cornwall FMW report (AM 107) for Allabury Camp (CO 885), (1986)
Consulted 12/1991, Cornwall SMR entry for PRN 1172.1,

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.