|Type of record:||Archaeology|
|Name:||Promontory fort on Burton Point 550m SW of Burton Point Farm|
Burton Point now stands as a cliff overlooking marshland, but it was a headland on the Dee estuary until the 18th century. There is an Iron Age Hill fort here formed by earthworks that form an arc that isolates the tip of the headland. The earthworks consist of a single rampart (stone and earth bank) up to 5 metres high with a ditch outside.There is a path that leads through the defence that may have been the original entrance. The earthwork has been reduced in size by quarrying and erosion. It is a Scheduled Monument.
It has been suggested that the fort could be Saxon rather than Iron age. The place name evidence does support this as "Burh" is the Saxon for a fortified settlement. It has been suggested that it maybe the military base of the Dane, Hingamund.
Hill forts defensive settlements created using a combination of earthworks and landscape features such as hill tops and cliff edges. This type of Hill Fort is known as a promontory fort because it uses a natural spur of land with steep sides with a short line of manmade earthworks across the neck of the feature.
|Parish:||ELLESMERE PORT NON-PARISH AREA, ELLESMERE PORT AND NESTON, CHESHIRE WEST AND CHESTER|
- PROMONTORY FORT? (Iron Age - 800 BC? to 42 AD? (?))
- BURH? (Saxon - 410 AD? to 1065 AD?)
|Protected Status:||Scheduled Monument 25695: Promontory Fort On Burton Point 550M South West Of Burton Point Farm|