More information : (SP 83180503) Camp (NR) (1)
Great Kimble: "On the brow of a high hill, south of the church,
at the NW corner of a wood called Pulpit Wood, commanding the track
of the Icknild-Way, is a square camp, with deep ditches on the east
and south. The area is covered with wood and bushes.... but the
lines are still perfect, though the avenues of approach
are no longer to be seen. The formation of this military work is
popularly ascribed to Cunobeline". (Obs: The name "Cymbeline's
Castle" is normally attributed by others, including the OS to SP
80 NW 5) (2)
A promontory fort with two single-bank sides, roughly at right-angles, on the west, where the ground falls away sharply, and a curving double rampart to the east, apparently broken by a central entrance.
Flint flakes and chippings reported from the interior. Plan. (3)
Visited 19 5 56. The best approach is up the track from Gt Kimble,
past the rifle range, which is still in use (Univ of London OTC).
Description (3) correct, but the entrance, of simple straight-through
type, is, as shown on OS 6", slightly S of the central point of the
double defences. There are many boundary banks in Bulpit Wood and
extensive quarries NE of the fort. (4)
2nd - 1st century BC (5). (5-6)
An IA 'C' bivallate ridge-end fort, centred at SP 83180503; is
D-shaped in plan measuring 100.0m NE-SW internally by 90.0m
tranversely.
The straight NW side immediately overlooks steep natural slopes
falling away into the head of a coombe and consists of a steeply
scarped slope, 3.0m in height, with a narrow terrace at its foot
(? silted up ditch) and faint traces of a bank along the top. The
SW side similarly overlooks, but at a short distance away, further
very steep natural slopes, and comprises double lynchet-like
slopes separated by a terrace or silted up ditch, again with traces
of a bank at the top. The E and N sides face the top of the ridge and
comprise double ramparts with outer ditches. There is a berm, 2.0 to
4.0m in width along the inner side of the outer rampart. The banks
average 1.3 to 1.6m in height from the ditches which are 0.4 to 1.0m
deep. In the E side is a simple "straight-through" entrance. The
width of 14.0m suggests widening in later or modern times, though
there is no obvious ground evidence of this. Published 1:2500 survey
revised. (7)
Pulpit Hill hillfort was surveyed in 2000 by English Heritage as part of a wider programme of survey of Ridgeway hillforts. For full details of the 1:1000 scale survey and a copy of the plan, see the archive report. (8)
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