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Badbury Rings in LiDAR

Badbury Rings is an Iron Age hillfort in Dorset. Here it is in the Environment Agency's 1 m LiDAR, shaded so the shape of the ground stands out. Look for three concentric rings of bank and ditch with gaps for entrances, and the raised line of the Roman road passing just to the north-west.

What you can see

• Badbury Rings is a roughly oval hillfort of about 20 hectares, ringed by three big ramparts, each with a ditch outside it. (Historic England)
• The two inner ramparts were built first; the outer rampart was added later. (Historic England)
• The earlier ramparts have two slightly inturned entrances on the east, and a western entrance through the inner rampart guarded by a narrow barbican. (Historic England)
• Just north-west of the Rings, an 870-metre stretch of the Dorchester to Old Sarum Roman road survives as a raised bank 14 metres wide with ditches on both sides. (Historic England)

Visiting

On the National Trust's Kingston Lacy estate; the Badbury Rings pay-and-display car park is open dawn to dusk, free for members, and charges others £1.60 for one hour up to £6.40 all day. (National Trust)

Official record: Historic England list entry 1002679: Badbury Rings.

Look, don't detect or dig

Badbury Rings is a Scheduled Monument, protected by law because it's of national importance. In England it's a criminal offence to use a metal detector on a Scheduled Monument without Historic England's written consent, and to remove any object of archaeological or historical interest found with one. Damaging a scheduled monument is an offence too, and works on one, including digging, need Scheduled Monument Consent first. More on Scheduled Monuments and the rules.

Keep to paths and open access land, and follow the Countryside Code.

More sites in LiDAR

Knowlton · Hod Hill · Hambledon Hill · Oakley Down · all sites