Horse Cliff Fort

Nearest town:
Burry Port (15km N)
OS reference:
SS434860
OS sheet:
159
Latitude:
51° 33' 2.15 N
Longitude:
4° 15' 32.12 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Horse Cliff Fort by GLADMAN

Remains of the defensive bank – not the most impressive you’ll ever see. But the location certainly is a contender. Rhossili Down rises beyond. Ah, the absurd beauty of the language used by us people populating these isles.....

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Dec 27, 2015
Image of Horse Cliff Fort by GLADMAN

Looking approx north across the crumbling crest of the western perimeter.... clearly the sea is taking it inexorably back. Note Worm’s Head far left background. Incidentally there is another cliff fort near background, The Knave.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Dec 27, 2015
Image of Horse Cliff Fort by GLADMAN

The curving – apparently univallate(?) – defences....

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Dec 27, 2015
Image of Horse Cliff Fort by GLADMAN

The western flank of the enclosure, the ‘Horse Cliff’. Suffice to say even the most beserker of warriors wouldn’t want to climb that.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Dec 27, 2015
Image of Horse Cliff Fort by thesweetcheat

The fantastic view westwards from the fort, towards The Knave, the next fort in the chain, and Worm’s Head.

Image credit: A. Brookes (4.4.2015)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 9, 2015
Image of Horse Cliff Fort by thesweetcheat

Not the most impressive ramparts, more than made up for by setting. That’s Exmoor on the horizon, across the Bristol Channel.

Image credit: A. Brookes (4.4.2015)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 9, 2015
Image of Horse Cliff Fort by thesweetcheat

The northwestern extent of the fort, looking across Deborah’s Hole.

Image credit: A. Brookes (4.4.2015)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 9, 2015
Image of Horse Cliff Fort by thesweetcheat

Horse Cliff seen across Deborah’s Hole from the neighbouring fort to the NW, The Knave. The cliffs are gradually being undercut by the sea.

Image credit: A. Brookes (27.4.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat May 14, 2013
Image of Horse Cliff Fort by thesweetcheat

Looking NW along the single bank. Rhossili Down is the prominent hill.

Image credit: A. Brookes (26.4.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat May 12, 2013

Articles

Horse Cliff Fort

C
CARL Oct 2, 2013

Visited 30.9.13

As TSC states there is little to see, just a low arcing bank approximately 1m high.

As you would expect, the coastal views are great.

Don’t get too close to the edge as one slip and you will be joining the ancestors!

Horse Cliff Fort

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat May 12, 2013

Visited 26 April 2013

A short cliff-top stroll from Paviland fort, Horse Cliff is a simpler construction than its neighbour and has suffered more in the couple of millennia since its construction. A single, curving line of defence cuts off the windswept headland. Several quarry pits have been dug up against the northern section of the rampart.

The views off the cliffs that form the western and southern bounds of the site are impressive and dizzying, especially down to the water-filled channel separating this headland from The Knave, coincidentally the next of the chain of multiple forts that top the cliffs between Port Eynon and Rhossili.

Worm’s Head can also be seen from here, the western tip of the Gower peninsula. Beyond, the Pembrokeshire coast is dimly visible.

In all honesty, it feels less impressive that its neighbours, lacking the romance that the “Paviland” name conjures. Still well worth a visit though, especially on such a lovely day.

Miscellaneous

Horse Cliff Fort
Cliff Fort
Kammer
Kammer May 28, 2003

A promontory fort occupying a narrow headland south east of the Knave. The cliff has eroded considerably since the fort’s construction, but apparently the original entrance is discernable as a break in the defences, 5 metres short of the cliff edge on the south side (my source here is Prehistoric Sites of The Gower & West Glamorgan by Wendy Hughes).

The site is accessible from the coastal footpath, but be careful near the cliff edge!

Sites within 20km of Horse Cliff Fort

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