Old Oswestry

Old Oswestry is a large early Iron Age hill fort in the Welsh Marches near Oswestry in north west Shropshire, England [1]. The hill fort was designated as a scheduled monument in 1934 [1]. The earliest occupation of the site began in the 8th century BC and continued up until the Roman conquest of Britain [1]. In 1939–40, geologist and amateur archaeologist William J. Varley conducted the most extensive examination of the site [1]. His work, which was not published until the 1990s, remains the most authoritative work on the site [1]. His excavations showed that the complex defensive ramparts that surround the hill fort were not built at the same time and that there were four distinct phases in their development [1].