Herefordshire Beacon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Herefordshire Beacon is one of the hills of the Malvern Hills. The Iron Age fortress at the top is known as British Camp and is composed of extensive ramparts that have been compared to a giant wedding cake. Recent research at nearby Midsummer Hill has shown that the fortress was occupied permanently by up to 4000 people for four to five hundred years.

The coming of the Romans ended the period of occupation of British Camp, but folklore states that the ancient British chieftain Caractacus made his last stand here. This is unlikely, according to the description of the Roman historian Tacitus who implies a site closer to the river Severn.

The name Malvern is probably derived from the Welsh moel fryn or "bare hill."

The Normans built a fortress on top of the Iron Age camp. The Shire Ditch, which dates from the 13th century, runs north and south along the ridge of the hills. Other sources [1] state that Shire Ditch might actually be much older. A higher hill two miles to the north is known as Worcestershire Beacon but does not bear the same marks of fortification.

Herefordhire Beacon is 1,109ft (or 338m) high--or so the consensus seems to be, although an inscription puts it height at 1,115ft.^{[citation needed]}