An Atlas of Hillforts in Britain and Ireland

[First posted in AWOL 9 July 2013, updated 14 September 2019]

An Atlas of Hillforts in Britain and Ireland

The Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland was produced as part of a four year collaborative project between archaeologists at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Oxford, assisted by colleagues at University College Cork for Ireland.  The project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (Grant Ref: AH/J004499/1) and was led by Professor Gary Lock (School of Archaeology, University of Oxford) and Professor Ian Ralston (Abercromby Professor of Archaeology, University of Edinburgh).  Partners included English Heritage (now Historic England), Historic Environment Scotland especially the former Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales and Department of the Environment (Northern Ireland).

The atlas contains data on 4,147 archaeological sites considered to be hillforts or possible hillforts spread across England, The Isle of Man, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.  Three criteria were used to define the archaeological sites that were included in the atlas:

1) topographic position - sites which occupy a prominent/focal position in the landscape;

2) scale of enclosing works - sites with enclosing works which are designed to impress;

3) size of enclosed area - sites with enclosing works that enclose an area > 0.2 hectares. 

The data presented in the atlas is a snapshot taken between 2012 and October 2016 and at the moment there is no provision for updating.  Up to date information on the archaeological sites included in the atlas can be obtained by consulting the appropriate HER/NMR (see https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk/assets/resources.html).  You are welcome to download data presented in the atlas to make use of it in your own research.  The online version of the Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland was built by John Pouncett (School of Archaeology, University of Oxford).

Terms of Use

The online version of the Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland should be cited as:

Lock, G. and Ralston, I. 2017.  Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. [ONLINE] Available at: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk

Atlas of Hillforts

Hillfort Types 

Hillfort Resources 

Citizen Science 

WikiData Image Upload 

Meet the Team 

Atlas Data 

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Functions

	Attribute Table: Open/close the attribute table.
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	About: Introduction to the Atlas of Hillforts.
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