Hambledon Hill

I know in the scale of things, the hills in Northwest Dorset aren't that grand, but they still hold a magic, the way they appear to burst up through the surrounding virtually flat landscape, most capped by ancient monuments. At a steep sided 192m, Hambledon Hill enjoys commanding views in all direction across Blackmore Vale. The air was so fresh, so clean and so bloody cold, driven by a strong wind, it raked the exposed hill top and reminded you that even though the day was bright, it's still winter. The hill has attracted the attention of people for millennia, with the earliest monuments being created in the Neolithic and representing some of the earliest in the country. Three causewayed enclosures, at least one believed to be used in ex-carnation practices and chambered long barrows where the cleaned bones would have been deposited, lay across the summit. Large quantities of Neolithic artifacts have been recovered during excavation, suggesting repeated episodes of occupation, whether permanent or seasonal/ritual is unknown. Although regularly placed human skulls in one of the causewayed enclosure ditches suggests the site held significant ritual importance. Later evidence suggests a Bronze Age settlement. There is little to see of this occupation, all that remains are the round barrows, home to their dead. During the Iron Age the hill top was developed into a substantial hillfort, which consumed and truncated much of the earlier phases of occupation and use. Occupied for about 300 years it would appear that the hillfort was abandoned in about 300BC in favour of the roomier and better sited adjacent Hod Hill. Throughout prehistory the activities played out high on Hambledon hill would have been visible for miles around, reinforcing the hills importance to the surrounding tribes; those activities echo through time in the overlaying monuments which crowd the summit.  It's quite a site.