Old Oswestry Hillfort

The discovery of a stone axe and flint tools here suggest that the hill was first occupied in the Neolithic period. However, the first direct evidence of a settlement dates to the late Bronze Age, about 1,000 BC, before the first ramparts were constructed.

Old Oswestry Hillfort was constructed and occupied during the Iron Age (800 BC to 43 AD). The vast ramparts enclose a roughly diamond-shaped area that may have housed a small settlement.

During the Iron Age, Britain was divided into numerous tribal territories, and the hillfort was probably a stronghold and principal settlement for one of these territories. Old Oswestry is a fine example of a ‘multi-vallate’ or multiple rampart hillfort. It is one of a dense band of hillforts in eastern Wales and the Marches.

The earthworks seen today are the end result of many centuries of modification. Excavations showed that the complex defensive ramparts that surround the hillfort were not built at the same time and that there were four distinct phases in their development. The banks and ditches would have been formidable obstacles to any attacker, but they may also have been built for the purposes of display, with their dramatic appearance symbolising the dominance and power of the hillfort and its inhabitants.

The entrances to the hillfort were originally simple gaps in the ramparts, but they were rebuilt during the Iron Age to form complex entrance corridors. These entrance corridors meant that people entering and leaving the fort could be closely monitored, and any attackers had to run the gauntlet of an entrance passage over 100 metres long. They could be constantly under attack from defenders along the tops of the flanking banks.

Described as the most impressive hillfort in the Welsh Borders; Old Oswestry remained in use for almost 1,000 years.