Additional information
Terrain
- Wide and mostly mud-free, several stiles
Landscape
- A grassy hilltop rises out of mixed woodland
Dog friendliness
- Dogs can run free on Dolebury Warren
Parking
- Pull-off near church; street parking in Shipham centre
Toilets en route
- None on route; nearest at Winscombe
About the walk
Somerset has a lot of Iron Age forts. It may just be that Somerset has rather a lot of the right sort of hill. These hill-forts were not just defensive structures, but small townships. Inside the summit wall were roundhouses of wattle and daub. Wattle is a woven framework of willow twigs, and its... daub is a mixture of clay and straw – the most waterproof daub also has plenty of cow-dung in it. Reed thatch made a cosy roof. The houses were up to 50ft (15m) across with a central fireplace. ‘Barbarian’ propaganda The inhabitants of these hill-forts are the first people about whom we have written records. However, the writers were their enemies, the Romans. The Durotinges, who inhabited Somerset and Dorset, are portrayed, along with the other British tribes, as warlike and savage barbarians. Warlike would seem to be correct. Their settlements, whether hill-forts or the lake village at Glastonbury, were placed so as to be defended. In the case of the hill-forts, they clearly valued the protective wall above having a convenient water supply. And Boudicca, often called Boadicea, chieftain of the Iceni of East Anglia, certainly earned the respect of the Romans even though they eventually defeated her, as they did the Durotinges on Cadbury Castle. 'Savage barbarians', however, is just enemy propaganda. These were people with a developed civilisation based on farming, fishing and hunting, as well as warfare. At Glastonbury their village on stilts in the marshland in itself illustrates a considerable feat of co-operative working from a very early time. They built log trackways across the peatlands, or paddled home in a canoe hollowed out of a single tree trunk with flint axes and fire. Iron Age craft and culture They traded with their neighbours; rounded pebbles from Chesil Beach, used as ammunition by slingers, have been found at Ham Hill. They wove baskets and made jewellery of bronze. They appreciated fine, or at least garish, clothing, coloured using plant dyes (madder for red and woad for blue) and pinned with a bronze brooch at the shoulder. They kept bees, and they made pottery which is still an inspiration to potters of today. At night the roundhouse was lit with rushlights made from the pith of reeds and soaked in mutton fat. And from what we know of Iron Age-type societies in more recent history, they had a rich tradition of story-telling and a detailed knowledge of their own family trees.
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Somerset
Somerset remains rural and unspoiled, and ever popular areas to visit are the limestone and red sandstone Mendip Hills rising to over 1,000 feet, and by complete contrast, to the south and southwest, the flat landscape of the Somerset Levels. Another popular spot, the Quantocks, once the haunt of poets Coleridge and Wordsworth, are noted for their gentle slopes, heather-covered moorland expanses and red deer.
