Danebury Ring Hill Fort, Hampshire: An ancient fort whose archeology reveals a gruesome past

Danebury Ring, near Stockbridge in Hampshire, is an image of tranquility today — but that wasn't always the case, as Annunciata Elwes explains.

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(Image credit: Alamy)

The fortified Iron Age town of Danebury had a turbulent history. Mass graves have been uncovered — some sacrificial — together with scorched wood that indicates burning defences, amid its hills, moats and ridges.'

Reconstruction drawing by Karen Guffogg of Danebury Hill Fort in the Celtic / Iron age, approx. 2nd century BC.
(Image credit: Karen Guffogg / Getty)

At 469ft above sea level with commanding views, this is the highest point in the region and, in contrast to the peace enjoyed by the few Highland cattle now grazing there, it was home to a thriving farming community for some 500 years from 600 BC.

The manmade landscape has survived remarkably well and makes for fun exploration; archaeological finds are displayed at Andover’s Museum of the Iron Age.

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Annunciata is director of contemporary art gallery TIN MAN ART and an award-winning journalist specialising in art, culture and property. Previously, she was Country Life’s News & Property Editor. Before that, she worked at The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, researched for a historical biographer and co-founded a literary, art and music festival in Oxfordshire. Lancashire-born, she lives in Hampshire with a husband, two daughters and a mischievous pug.