Hascombe Hill

Hascombe Hill or Hascombe Camp^[1] is the site of an Iron Age multivallate hill fort close to the village of Hascombe in Surrey, England.

Hascombe Camp
Looking south from Hascombe Hill
Type	Hill fort
Location	Hascombe
Coordinates	51°08′15″N 0°33′55″W
OS grid reference	TQ 00501 38662
Area	Surrey
Built	Iron Age
Scheduled monument
Official name	Hascombe Camp
Designated	20 October 1994
Reference no.	1008522
Location of Hascombe Camp in Surrey

History

Stone circle

The site was excavated in 1931 by S. E. Winbolt, who dated the occupation of the site to the 1st century BCE. The hillfort encloses a thickly wooded area of approximately 2.4 hectares (6 acres). The sides of the fort, which are naturally very steep, were scarped at the top to make them almost unassailable. Encircling the crest of the hill is a defensive ditch 1.5 metres (5 ft) deep. The defences are reinforced on the northeast side (where the hillfort joins the rest of the hill) with a strong line of ramparts and ditches broken by a single entrance passage some 24 metres (80 ft) long.

There is pottery evidence that the site was occupied until quite late and signs that it was forcefully evacuated, possibly coinciding with the Roman invasions under Julius Caesar in 55 and 54 BCE.^[2]

In the early 19th century it became an important naval telegraph station, using a mechanical form of semaphore to communicate with Netley Heath in Surrey on one side and Blackdown in Sussex on the other. A chain of such stations linked the Admiralty with Portsmouth.

Hascombe Hill is 196 metres (644 ft) high.

In the 1990s the Modern Order of Druids erected a stone circle below the south-eastern slopes of Hascombe Hill.^{[3][dead link‍]}