Musbury Castle Hill Fort, Musbury, Devon

Taken from the Old English translation, the name Musbury loosely, amusingly - and most delightfully - means 'ancient place overrun by mice'. In other words, abandoned and left to the wild. One of a string of Iron Age hill forts running along the east side of the Axe Valley, it is the second from the coast, the first being Hawkesdown at Axmouth whose original ancient name was Hocksdon. 

This part of East Devon was heavily defended during prehistoric times. The hill forts created a buffer zone between the Durotriges to the east in what is now Dorset, the Dumnonii to the west and the Dubonni to the north, jealously guarding a trade route through the Axe and Yarty Valleys, and culminating in what has been described as a Neolithic Clapham Junction at Hembury.
 

The first photo above was taken by the farm situated above St Michael's church. The next photo was just above the farm and looking down the track towards it.

Further up the track it was possible to see Hembury with its hill fort to the north.

The photo below shows the view to the south. The central gap is the coastal town of Seaton and the faint glints below that are the lakes at Lower Bruckland Nature Reserve some two to three miles inland. The prominent hill to the left is Hawkesdown, topped by its hill fort.

These next two photos were taken from as far as I could get to that day. Unfortunately, after visiting several places, I didn't manage to make it to the top before my next bus home - and I also had a really bad feeling about the path through a field crossing quite near to a large steep dip filled with trees, which put me off - although whilst chatting to someone at the bus stop I was told that I wasn't all that far from the top.
 

A large prehistoric univallate hill fort, it occupies a site at the end of a Greensand spur with naturally steep slopes, having a long, narrow enclosure aligned with the spur on which it sits. The photo below shows the highest viewpoint on the far right.

Visited in March 2010, I always meant to go back to finish my climb to the top and take more photos. Unfortunately, a worsening disability put paid to that. Maybe one day! ;)