Seaton Down Camp Hill Fort, Seaton, Devon

Dedicated to the memory of Dr Colin Dawes who died on 15th September 2011.

I'd visited here a couple of times and wasn't all that happy with the photos. I'd intended to take more but then, having seen the report in the local paper of the death of Dr Colin Dawes, I decided to put this on my website and dedicate the page to him as a memorial. 

I only met Colin twice, when he gave talks for the Axe Valley Heritage Society that I belonged to, and enjoyed chatting to him afterwards about common interests. A palaeontologist, author and well-known fossil hunter in the area, he was documenting finds along the World Heritage Jurassic site of the Undercliff between Axmouth and Lyme Regis when he died of a heart attack. The first talk of his that I attended covered the Axe Valley hill forts and the second about the finds whilst out and about with his metal detector group. Some of those finds were from the Undercliff, including WW2 military insignia along with pieces of jewellery and other personal objects from various eras.

I've since taken a few more photos; more or less the same as one set I'd previously taken, and I'll add them to this blog article too.

There isn't much information about Seaton Down Camp itself, and is a bit of an unknown. A univallate Iron Age hill fort consisting of an earthwork with a large linear rampart, it lies at the edge of the north east end of the down on a high promontory, possibly as a defensive fortification, and is approximately 125 metres (410 ft) above sea level.

The first photo was taken from the A3052, overlooking the ancient woodland, Holyford Woods, with the hill fort to the right. The second photo is a view of the hill fort from the path on the western side down towards the woods.
 

 

On Google Earth and OS maps, it can be seen that the fort is horseshoe shaped, although the central hedgerow and the row below that in the soutern section may have been a later division by one of the farmers.

The photo above and the following ones were taken from the path on the north east side leading to Holyford Woods. On the google map the path is along the line of hedgerow a field away from the right side of the fort. The hill fort itself is on private farmland but the ramparts topped with trees can be clearly seen from this path.  

 

The next three were taken a few years later in late November 2016, which was much better as we can see the trees more clearly on the ramparts behind the adjacent hedgerow snaking down towards the path.

And finally, the photo below was taken from the south-west edge of Holyford Woods showing the slope towards the upper reaches of the hill fort on the east side.