Bratton
Camp
Bratton camp (also known as Bratton castle) is an Iron Age (750 BC - AD 42) hillfort on Bratton Down, adjacent to the White Horse. The hillfort is bivallate in design – It has two circuits of ‘ditch and bank’ encompassing approximately 25 acres. It is much easier to look at the shape, than for me to describe it, so click HERE. The short west side and the long north side run along the tops of steep escarpment slopes giving added protection. The ditches are stepped one above the other, the ramparts rising up to a height of 6 meters above the ditches.
Bratton Camp, the site of the
Battle of Ethandun, is one of a group of Iron Age defences concentrated
around the western edge of Salisbury Plain above Westbury and Warminster. Its
companion sites are Battlesbury hillfort overlooking Warminster itself, Scratchbury
further south-west overlooking the Wylye Valley, and Cley Hill a few miles away
to the west on an isolated hill. There are also two, much smaller defensive
structures (now seen as moats) within Westbury itself. I can't see a strategic advantage for such a
close spacing of these defensive features. It could be that they are
evidence of the wealth and pride of local tribal leaders (the conservatory of
the Iron Age).
Within the centre of the hillfort a much earlier monument can be seen - a large Neolithic long barrow dating from between 2500 and 4000 BC. The longbarrow is about 70 meters long, orientated east-west, and about 3 meters high at the eastern end. The side ditches are now silted up, and hollows in the mound indicate excavations (during the 19th Century). Two adults appear to have been buried here - they lay on a platform at the eastern end, and had been partly burnt. I haven’t found any information about their location today!
WARNING... The following panoramic image, taken from the top of the longbarrow is a HUGE file (30 seconds at 56K)... It's worth opening because it's a commanding view (and cos it took me a long tome to put together!). When viewed with a 800/600 resolution, it will fill the screen height and allow you to pan left and right to take in the view. If windows 'helpfully' shrinks it, click the icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the image (you may need to 'hover' for a couple of seconds before it appears) to enlarge it again.
