This New Stone Age ritual encampment is surrounded by a six-foot deep flat-bottomed ditch in eight sections. There are traces of an external bank on the south side and of a single oval hut within the structure. Several hearths were found during excavations of the hut, along with cereal storage pits, and others containing querns, pottery and over six-hundred flint scrapers. Radiocarbon dating has the occupation period of this phase between 3,330 and 3,150 BC.
A triangular hillfort of about 7½ acres (c.3ha) was constructed on the site following a long period of abandonment, seemingly in three phases:
Evidence suggests that the fort had been abandoned by its native inhabitants shortly before the arrival of Roman forces in the area.
Excavation conducted in the eastern part of the site has recently revealed that roughly half of the fort's interior had been used by the Roman military. The west gate was rebuilt, large timber structures were erected within the fort, mostly granaries and other storehouses, but there is also evidence of iron-working. The Roman occupation was due no doubt to the proximity of the fort to the Fosse Way, the military highway between the legionary fortresses at Exeter and Lincoln. Occupation started around 50AD and perhaps lasted a couple of campaign seasons before the site was finally dismantled and abandoned.