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Fieldnotes
| Visited 2.9.2017 The wheel of the year turns another click. It's dark when I get up, and mist fills the valley of the Severn as I ride the early train along the estuary, a chill in the air in plain contrast to the heat of the last few days. By the time I get to the pretty town of Ledbury several hours later, the sun has returned, the heat with it. The summer bus service to British Camp is in its last couple of weeks, and I'm keen to revisit a fort that I last came to on a cold and wet December day some seven and half years ago. Rather than climbing onto the hills, I take the lower path round British Camp reservoir, unusually starting my walk with a descent rather than getting the uphill out of the way at the start. From down here, the bulk of British Camp looms oppressively, blocking all views westwards. People high on the ramparts are tiny, dwarfed by the enormity of earth and rock. But I'm not going to get distracted by British Camp today, instead heading south to see the near-neighbours. Woodland canopy provides welcome shade on Tinker's Hill, continuing more sparsely to Shadybank Common and the picturesque Dales Hall. Across Berrow Downs the view opens up massively to the east, from Bredon Hill (two hillforts) to the Cotswold escarpment (lots of hillforts). Past Fairoaks Farm a path sneaks invitingly into the trees, so I head off this way. It proves to be a steep pull through Hollybush Roughs, and by the time I emerge onto a wider path I'm feeling rather disorientated about where I am in relation to the fort. A final slog takes me up to the open top of the hill and the memorial shelter mentioned by Carl. This is where I came on my previous visit, but on that occasion I was with a group and we climbed up from the northeast, as cold December rain started to fall. No such problem this time, instead it's blazing heat to contend with. There are a few people up here, unsurprisingly on a day like this. I head to the southern edge of the fort, where two ramparts head off around the western circumference. Following the higher of the two, some way below the top of the hill, the lower rampart soon drops away, leaving a wide space and steep hillside between the two levels. The views south and west are terrific, from the inevitable May Hill, across the Forest of Dean, the hills above Cwmbran, Pen-y-Fal (The Sugarloaf), the high ridge of the Black Mountains, the Radnor Forest, the hills of Herefordshire and eventually northwest to the Clee Hills in Shropshire. There must be two dozen hillforts in view from here. I follow the inner rampart round, a challenge in places as the chest high bracken conceals some ankle catching brambles. Eventually coming to the northern entrance, the higher hills of the Malverns and the obvious contours of British Camp fill the view. Last time I was here we only visited this higher part of the fort, but actually it comprises less than half of the occupied area. This time I head eastwards downhill, back into the trees. Passing through the woodland, the path re-emerges into another open area. The fort is in the shape of a fat-tailed 'q', and the eastern area is broad and flatter than the high part of the hill. Sadly the views here are much more restricted by the trees below the rampart, and the rampart itself is overgrown with brambles that make it impossible to follow. Instead I walk south through the middle of the section - it seems probable that this was the main residential area of the fort, sheltered from the winds and exposure of the western part. On a nice sunny day it feels like a good place to make your home. It's easy to see why the fort is where it is, well-defended by steep slopes and with commanding views in all directions. Eventually I re-enter the trees at the southern end, trying to get back to the rampart on the western side of the "tail". Crossing a fence brings me to the lip of a huge drop, with water glinting far below. This marks the edge of a deep quarry cut into the hillside below the fort, taking the edge of the rampart with it. A potentially dangerous place for the unwary, the sheer drop is head-spinning and I head back to the open area before following the rampart again along its southern route. It's probable that the main entrance was close to where the body of 'q' joins the tail, but a group of teenagers are doing teenager stuff in the trees here, and it's not clear that an old git lurking in the woods with a camera is going to provoke a positive response, so once again I head back uphill. By now time has run away, as it always seems to, and it becomes a dash back to British Camp to get to the bus-stop. Still, it's been a very satisfying return to Midsummer Hill. By the time I get home it's getting dark, and the fleeting months of summer seem to be ebbing away. The wheel keeps turning. |
Posted by thesweetcheat3rd September 2017ce Edited 3rd September 2017ce
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Comments (10) |
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Sounds a good day out tsc. The wheel does indeed keep turning. Last winter seems like yesterday and already the nights are starting to draw in again. The wind had a chill to it last Friday on Bennachie, not good. |
Posted by thelonious3rd September 2017ce |
| Intrepid as ever tsc - quite daunting too, reading about the sheer drop into the quarry. How many hillfort-hillsides have been partially destroyed by quarrying I wonder. Painswick springs to mind, also Westbury/Bratton Camp - although in that case the missing hillside is out of sight and little away from the White Horse/hillfort. |
Posted by tjj3rd September 2017ce |
| Quarry at the cheesewring came to mind reading your post tjj also Tomnaverie Stone Circle up here and its close brush with death from the quarry next door. |
Posted by thelonious 3rd September 2017ce |
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Thank you both. The quarry was more of a shock than it should have been - teach me to pay attention more! Plenty of examples near me, as well as Painswick - my local fort Leckhampton Hill is badly quarried (leaving the iconic Devil's Chimney behind in the process) as are Cleeve Cloud and to a lesser extent Crickley Hill. Nothing really compares to the massive scarring on Elidir Fawr in Snowdonia though. |
Posted by thesweetcheat 4th September 2017ce |
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The Devil's Chimney reminds me of the Old Man of Mow (now there's a tricky hump for you). Odd they were both left after the quarrying. I like them. |
Posted by thelonious 4th September 2017ce |
| Superb as always SC. Dun Davie near Inverness is one with a quarry at its side, walk beyond the east fence and you walk clean off the edge. Clatchchard Craig in Fife was removed altogether :-( |
Posted by drewbhoy4th September 2017ce |
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Thanks Drew :) Luckily here there was a good few metres between fence and edge! T, Old Man looks worse than InPin! |
Posted by thesweetcheat 4th September 2017ce |
| Traprain Law.... |
Posted by GLADMAN4th September 2017ce |
| Yep, I've just remembered Moel Hiraddig in the Clwydian Hills too. |
Posted by thesweetcheat 4th September 2017ce |
| Isn't part of the majestic Cissbury Ring in West Sussex chewed up by quarrying? |
Posted by ironstone5th September 2017ce |
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