Ladle Hill

Ladle Hill lies on Great Litchfield Down, near the village of Burghclere and Watership Down, in north Hampshire. It is immediately to the East of Beacon Hill. Part of the hill is a 10.37 hectares (25.6 acres) biological SSSI, number 1000642, first notified in 1978. It is 232 metres high and has a hill forts and Tumulus on its slopes. The hill is easily accessed from the nearby cross county footpath, Wayfarer's Walk. The hill falls within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Archaeology

The hill fort on the top of the hill has never been excavated, but the land and ditch are sharply defined and well preserved. This Iron Age fort is roughly rectangular and enclosed 7 acres within an embankment and ditch. There are two probable entrances to the east and west. The work seems to have been undertaken by several different labour forces, each working on a section of the defences, but for some reason the task was abandoned and the fort left unfinished. A 170 ft diameter disc barrow lies just to the North, (scheduled ancient monument number 43) and there are several other barrows in the area, mostly ploughed-out.