Hambledon Hill

 

Dorset is home to some magnificent Iron Age hillforts, some of the country's finest if not most emblematic examples, and one of the finest is Hambledon Hill set in the county's Blackmore Vale region. The hill rises majestically from the surrounding landscape and was a focus of activity long before the hillforts' construction. During the Neolithic two causewayed enclosures crowned the summit, overlaying an earlier enclosure, the site also includes a couple of long barrows, most of this activity has been overlaid by the ramparts, ditches and interior of the later Iron Age hillfort, or levelled by time. I've not walked here for years, and it was only by chance that we found myself over this way today, and with an old friend; a perfect day to return. Even though I've visited this site innumerable times over the years it never fails to solicit a visceral response,  you can only imagine how the architects and users of these monuments must've experienced the sites and surrounding landscape.