East Hill

Nearest town:
Okehampton (2km W)
OS reference:
SX604941
OS sheet:
191
Latitude:
50° 43' 44.82 N
Longitude:
3° 58' 41.66 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of East Hill (Hillfort) by juamei

Image Credit: Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015.

Image credit: Open Source Environment Agency LIDAR
juamei
juamei Mar 25, 2018
Image of East Hill (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Presumably site of the original entrance...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 27, 2016
Image of East Hill (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

The defences from the internal south-eastern flank.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 27, 2016
Image of East Hill (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Natural defences to east... I think that’s Yes Tor peeking through the cloud centre top left (happy to be corrected).

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 27, 2016
Image of East Hill (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

The northern section of the bank, looking south. Isolated from the southern by barbed wire, it would appear to be suffering significant damage (as shown here) and seems to have been ploughed out to the north.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 27, 2016
Image of East Hill (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

The substantial ditch viewed from the bank... the only pony thing about this site relates to the wondrous creatures grazing the hinterland.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 27, 2016
Image of East Hill (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Looking south along the impressive southern section of defences.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 27, 2016
Image of East Hill (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Mother Nature lends... or rather lent, since all is at peace here now, aside from the A30 below... more than a helping hand to the east. Definitely a promontory fort, this.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 27, 2016
Image of East Hill (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Bit deficient on the warrior front, unfortunately.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 27, 2016
Image of East Hill (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

The southern end of the great cross-bank of this excellent promontory fort is overcome with vegetation.... even in March... but is still mightily impressive for such an obscure site. Looking north(ish).

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 27, 2016

Articles

Miscellaneous

East Hill
Hillfort
phil
phil Dec 7, 2003

Dartmoor National Park Authority

The rampart on East Hill stands 3 metres high in places and has a wide, flat-bottomed, ditch on the outside. East Hill is properly termed a promontory fort, rather than a hill fort, having been built at the end of the East Hill ridge to take advantage of the natural defences provided on two sides by the steep wooded slopes above the East Okement River and the Moor Brook.

East Hill Iron Age fort lies on moorland south east of Okehampton and can be approached from a number of directions using public rights of way.

Hill forts are characteristic of the middle and later Iron Age (500BC – AD 50) and are seen to be the fortified settlements of the Celtic people. At least 12 hill forts survive on Dartmoor. East Hill fort is at grid reference SX 604 941.

Records show that East Hill fort was examined by the Reverend H G Fothergill in 1840. One hundred years later John Brailsford undertook a very small-scale excavation on the central entrance which divides the rampart in two. He found that the end of the rampart was neatly faced with eleven courses of small slabs and there appeared to be a palisaded trench forming a passage into the entrance. No other finds were recorded. A nearby outcrop of rock is known locally as ‘Roman Chair’. This name possibly arises from the 19th century discovery of a horde of 200 Roman coins in the East Hill Area.

Sites within 20km of East Hill

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