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Portfield hillfort

Whalley, GB

Portfield hillfort

Portfield also known as Planes Wood Camp is a late Bronze Age or Iron Age hillfort situated close to the town of Whalley in Lancashire, Northern England. It is thought to have originally been constructed as a univallate structure and then modified into a small multivallate one sometime after. It is

located on a slight promontory overlooking the valley of the River Calder, with the ground falling particularly rapidly to the west. A flat, possibly artificially levelled area measuring approximately 165 by 110 metres (541 by 361 ft), appears to have originally enclosed by a single rampart, with a least one entrance on the northern side. The irregularly-shaped site, with an area a little over 1.4 hectares (3.5 acres), is 120 metres (400 ft) above sea level. The surrounding land slopes fairly steeply on the southeast, and little less so on the northwest sides, while to the northeast the drop is only slight. No evidence remains of a bank on the western side and it could be that the slope here, which is most extreme on the upper 15 metres (50 ft), may have been considered defence enough. Generally the defences have not survived well, but at the northwest corner where they are best preserved...

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