Durotriges Dig
banner
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Durotriges Dig
@durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Investigating the Iron Age and Roman period in SW Britain. Bournemouth University #HillfortsWednesday Posts (mostly) by Miles Russell
Pinned
Hello, we're the Durotriges Project 👋

If you're here for updates on prehistoric Dorset, archaeology info or just to look at pictures of Iron Age / Roman artefacts, we hope you'll find something of interest

#Durotriges25

⚠️ warning: may contain random references to #DoctorWho and #HypocaustGate
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
🚨We're reopening!!! 🚨

Next week we'll be OPEN from 10am to 4pm with special activities for youngsters. 🤩🤩

Bring your kids along and we promise to get them so wound up and excited that your drive home will be a living nightmare.

sussexpast.co.uk/event/februa...
February Half Term at Fishbourne Roman Palace - Sussex Past
Live Like a Roman this half term with fun family activities from 16th to 20th February at Fishbourne Roman Palace, near Chichester
sussexpast.co.uk
February 13, 2026 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
Absolutely blown away by the Mithraic altars revealed by the National Museum of Scotland today, the way the head of Sol is designed to be backlit! Love to do a proper miniature, but just playing with this candle & paper one for now (it burst into flames 3 seconds later 😳)
#PlaymobilInfestation
February 11, 2026 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
I have a few of these on my patch too... I call them nilforts.
Thought I'd throw my hat into the cairn-ring of #HillfortsWednesday

But paradoxically, I want to talk about Ingleborough, a large hill (732m) in the Yorkshire Dales that, while often believed to be a hillfort, actually isn't!
February 12, 2026 at 8:06 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
We have so many questions
We sent #CuratorRob to a professional Networking event at the Novium Museum, Chichester, yesterday and he represented the Palace by wearing a prawn hat. 🤦
February 11, 2026 at 10:51 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
We love this aerial view of the fantastic Iron Age hillfort on the Berkshire Downs near Blewbury, excavated by this very museum in the 1940s and 1950s, see some of finds including a complete dog skeleton in our Green Space gallery
Blewburton hillfort, South Oxfordshire.
February 11, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
✨ An Evening with National Trust Archaeologists ✨

Ever wondered what archaeology looks like behind the scenes at National Trust places?

Join the CBA for a free online evening exploring the archaeology cared for by National Trust, including community digs, hilltop enclosures and Roman gold mining.
February 9, 2026 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
This is so cool
February 10, 2026 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
Some Iron Age ramparty goodness from Abbotsbury Castle hillfort, high above the villages of West #Dorset

Here looking NW along the coast to West Bay and Bridport and SW along Chesil Beach to Weymouth and Portland

We love it here

📷 Feb 2023

Happy #HillfortsWednesday !
February 11, 2026 at 10:26 AM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
To celebrate #WomenInScience, this is Audrey Henshall (1927-2021), the first professional female #archaeologist in Scotland, renowned for her work on chambered cairns & burials.

This picture is of Henshall, included in The Herald. ©Rosemary A Meldrum, CC

#historyofscience #womenshistory #herstory
February 11, 2026 at 12:00 PM
A fantastic site for #HillfortsWednesday 👍

Haven't been to Battlesbury for years. Need to rectify that 👇👇
#hillfortwednesday - miraculously an hour of sun on Salisbury Plain today enabling a condition survey of Battlesbury Hillfort. Not looking bad and the views were grand. Colt Hoare’s plan in Ancient Wiltshire still works. #archaeology #wiltshire #ironage #celts
February 11, 2026 at 10:50 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
A magnetometry survey of Abbotsbury Castle hillfort #Dorset has shown that there are, in the SE corner of the enclosure, a series of Iron Age roundhouse platforms with collapsed daub walls, postholes and storage pits 🤩

11 have so far been identified

© Dave Stewart 2014

#HillfortsWednesday
February 11, 2026 at 3:39 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
Oliver's Castle, Roundway Down
February 8, 2026 at 7:44 PM
Would love to, sigh...
February 11, 2026 at 8:30 PM
It absolutely is 🤣
February 11, 2026 at 8:27 PM
They are rather 😍

Gotta love a hillfort 😁👍
February 11, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
One of the best views in the country. Glorious Dorset 🥰
Some Iron Age ramparty goodness from Abbotsbury Castle hillfort, high above the villages of West #Dorset

Here looking NW along the coast to West Bay and Bridport and SW along Chesil Beach to Weymouth and Portland

We love it here

📷 Feb 2023

Happy #HillfortsWednesday !
February 11, 2026 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
Some pretty rich bioarchaeological pickings here on A Massacre at an Iron Age Hillfort.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Worlebury Hillfort, Somerset: Interdisciplinary Reanalysis of an Iron Age Massacre | Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society | Cambridge Core
Worlebury Hillfort, Somerset: Interdisciplinary Reanalysis of an Iron Age Massacre
www.cambridge.org
February 6, 2026 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
Ingleborough not a hillfort!

The Iron Age stans will be reeling!

Neolithic and Bronze Age bods sit in quiet triumph.
Thought I'd throw my hat into the cairn-ring of #HillfortsWednesday

But paradoxically, I want to talk about Ingleborough, a large hill (732m) in the Yorkshire Dales that, while often believed to be a hillfort, actually isn't!
February 11, 2026 at 9:47 AM
On this #hillfortwednesday a book recommendation: The rampart of Stillfried (Austria). Hellerschmid and Griebl describe the features of the three Urnfield Culture phases and suggest the use of fire to strengthen the timber elements.
austriaca.at/9206-0inhalt
@fwf-at.bsky.social @oeai.bsky.social
February 11, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
Abbotsbury Castle is a roughly triangular multivallate Iron Age hillfort encircling 1.8ha of a limestone outcrop overlooking the Jurassic Coast betwixt Bridport and Weymouth in Dorset

We love it 😍

Here looking NE dominating the B3157 coast road

📷 © Jo and Sue Crane 2016

#HillfortsWednesday
February 11, 2026 at 7:14 AM
It's ok, I said *to Weymouth*, not that you could see Weymouth

I know Weymouth is a very modest town that likes to hide in the shadows 😉
February 11, 2026 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
#HillfortsWednesday #Celtic: Excavations at Tre'r Ceiri have produced finds mainly of Roman pottery, showing that they traded with the Romans. During the final period of occupation the fort may have been used as a refuge, not from the Romans but from Irish raiders.
February 11, 2026 at 4:16 PM
It's only about 1.5km out of town west on the B3157 to Bridport and you can park by the SE side of the ramparts. It's well worth a visit and the views out along the coast are epic 👍
February 11, 2026 at 4:58 PM
Oooo, not been to Rispain. Looks great 🤩

[Adds to *must visit* list]
February 11, 2026 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Durotriges Dig
Sneaking Rispain Camp in for #HillfortsWednesday as it is not listed on the Atlas, and we define it as a settlement - but the ditches are absolutely MASSIVE

First thought to be a Roman site, then medieval it was revealed as Iron Age following excavation in the 1970s

Photos from my visit yesterday
February 11, 2026 at 2:55 PM