![]() ![]() Why so many went out of use is not known. By about 350 BC many hillforts went out of use and the remaining ones were reinforced. There are over 2,000 Iron Age hillforts known in Britain. Some may even have simply been enclosures for domesticated animals such as cows.Īlthough the first had been built about 1500 BC, hillfort building peaked during the later Iron Age. This inter-tribal warfare was traditionally interpreted as the reason for the building of hill forts, as defensive areas where small communities across the landscape could muster and stand their ground when attacked.īut while this may have been the case in some, some hillforts are sited on the sides of hills with poor defensive value, and so some may best be seen simply as communal gathering places or even strongholds of elites within the groups. ![]() These groups would have changed and evolved throughout the Iron Age, and their early interactions seem to have been hostile, perhaps as tribal groups and boundaries settled in to place. Iron Age Britons lived in organised tribal groups, ruled by a chieftain. Take a look and see where the nearest hillforts are to you, and then why not go and visit? ![]() An amazing website, the Oxford Atlas of Hillforts shows us just how many hillforts there were scattered across the countryside. Hillforts were an important part of the Iron Age British landscape, especially in the west. ![]()
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