All Round the Wrekin - The Hillfort

The Origins of the Settlement

The Wrekin is a scheduled ancient monument with a human history that dates back beyond the Iron Age to 1000BC, when roundhouses appear to have been constructed on the hill for the first time. Archaeological evidence suggests that a small cluster of these buildings were burnt down in about 450BC, an act that may have led to the construction of the first defences on the hill at a similar date. The earthen mounds of two the entrances to the hillfort (Hell Gate and Heaven Gate) and the remains of their associated guard rooms are still visible on the north-east side of the hill top, with further remnants of other entrances surviving around the south-west of the structure.