Rawlsbury Hillfort

Perched proudly on a prominent spur of Bulbarrow Hill is Rawlsbury Hillfort, with views over three counties it's strategically sited and would have posed an impressive and unassailable defended position. The site is Iron Age and is located well within the territory of the Durotriges, the Celtic tribe controlling what is now Dorset. It's a pear shaped multivallate fort of about 5 acres, hugging the contours of the spur, its two large banks and dividing ditches remain impressive. The only way to approach to the site would have been along the spur and this side of the fort has multiple banks and ditches to confuse any would be attacker, although these defences have been disturbed and slighted by a Medieval track. Sited as it is on the second highest hill in the county, it has continued to be of strategic importance, in 1588 it was used as a Armada beacon to warn of any attack from Spain, later during the Napoleonic Wars it was the site of a hilltop telegraph station and during the Second World War a GEE radio navigation system used by the RAF was sited nearby on the summit of Bulbarrow Hill.