Smedmore Hill Settlement

The Smedmore Hill Settlement is an archaeological site about 2 miles south-west of Corfe Castle, in Dorset, England [1]. The site is a settlement and an associated field system, dating from the Iron Age and Romano-British period [1]. It is a scheduled monument [1]. The site is regarded as a settlement occupied by a group of subsistence farmers during the Romano-British period [1]. It is on the northern slope of Smedmore Hill, a limestone ridge; its total area is about 1.2 hectares [1]. It consists of a block of small enclosures of size 0.02 to 0.08 hectares, separated by rubble-built banks of height up to 0.45 metres, each one levelled using limestone rubble, so that the enclosures are terraced into the hillside [1]. Around the edge of the settlement are traces of a bank, up to 0.9 metres high, on the south, south-west and south-east; four gaps in the bank are thought to be entrances [1].