Bindon Hill

Bindon Hill is an extensive Iron Age earthwork, enclosing a coastal hill area on the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth Cove in Dorset [1]. It is about 19 kilometres west of Swanage, about 6 kilometres south west of Wareham, and about 17 kilometres southeast of Dorchester [1]. The main rampart and external ditch run for over 2 km along an east-west ridge parallel to the coast, which lies about 750 m to the south [1]. The ridge rises to 168 m and the cliffs are 30–120 m high [1]. At the western end, an incomplete series of ramparts curves back to the cliffs of Lulworth Cove [1]. At the eastern end, the main rampart reaches the cliffs on the north side of Mupe Bay [1]. The total enclosed area is about 110 ha [1]. The enormous enclosed area, lack of evidence of settlement in the interior, and the impossibility of effectively defending such a large perimeter, all suggest it was primarily an enclosed pasture for domesticated animals, not a strategic tribal hill fort [1].