Blackdown Rings

An Iron Age hillfort near the hamlet of Hazelwood in Devon, occupying a roughly oval area of approximately 2.4 hectares on a hilltop 185 m above sea level, commanding the River Avon valley. The defenses consist of a rampart with an external ditch and counterscarp bank encircling the site. In the medieval period, a ringwork and bailey castle was built within the earlier earthworks, reusing the prehistoric fortification. On the highest point, a level platform of about 4.5 by 3.5 m marks the site of a beacon recorded on a 1752 plan. The monument is a Scheduled Ancient Monument under the 1979 Act.