The purpose of the structure is unknown but it could have filled a variety of roles, including a defensive position, a cattle enclosure or even a religious shrine.

After its final abandonment around the late fourth century AD, the hill fort remained unoccupied save for grazing cattle until a mid-18th-century landowner planted a ring of beech trees around its perimeter to beautify the site.

Periodic replanting on a number of occasions to replace old or destroyed trees has afforded archaeologists the opportunity to carry out a series of excavations which have revealed much about the history of the site.

Chanctonbury Ring is in a commanding position looking across the Sussex Weald to the north, on the edge of a steep natural escarpment to the northwest and northeast.

Although this was originally recorded as the top of Chanctonbury Hill and thus the Marilyn summit, recent measurements suggest that the area of the Ring is higher, about 241 metres (791 ft) above sea level.

[3][5] The original entrance to the hill fort was provided by a gap of approximately 6 metres (20 ft) on the south-eastern side, where the remains of a causeway are visible.

[1] The construction of a number of barrows on the top of Chanctonbury Hill suggests that the hilltop was seen as an area of special significance, perhaps because of its high visibility.

It is conceivable that the domed summit now occupied by Chanctonbury Ring was used as a site for ritual activity on account of its prominent position along the South Downs ridgeway.

[5] However, later analysis of pottery finds suggests that its origins are significantly older and may date to the late Bronze Age, or around the seventh century BC.

At least two Romano-Celtic temples were built in the interior, probably some time during the second century,[6] while the bank and ditch were reused to form a temenos or "sacred precinct".

It has provided a variety of datable finds, including roof tile fragments, "window glass, oyster shells, pottery sherds and coins", analysis of which has shown that the temple was in use during an approximately 350-year-long period from the mid-first to the late fourth centuries AD.

In other locations, such as at Hayling Island and Maiden Castle, there was continuity of religious use between Iron Age and Roman times, which was clearly not the case with Chanctonbury.

[9] After its abandonment, Chanctonbury Ring appears to have been left unoccupied and unused throughout the late Roman, medieval and early modern periods.

Large quantities of Romano-British pottery and building rubble were discovered during preparations for planting, prompting the first archaeological excavation of the hill fort.

Damage was also caused by World War II training activities, including the digging of practice slit trenches and rubbish pits on the site.

[3][1] Chanctonbury Ring was fenced off for a number of years after 1950 when the then owner surrounded it with barbed wire and erected a large iron water tank for cattle.

This provided West Sussex County Council with an opportunity to carry out a further archaeological investigation of the site, which was accomplished during July and August of that year.

A topographical survey conducted by Mark Tibble has identified fourteen landscape features which may be previously unrecognised round barrows.

It was found to contain the skeletons of an adult female and a child and fragmentary remains of a third individual, as well as a fine example of an early Bronze Age Wessex culture dagger dating to around 1800–1500 BC.

Frank R. Williams, writing in the Sussex Notes and Queries in 1944, argues that the story derives from ancient pagan worship which would include a ritual dance ceremony followed by a sacrificial feast.

[16] The story is widely known orally with variations (such as the Devil offering porridge or milk instead of soup) but may be of relatively recent origins, with its first known appearance in print dating to Arthur Beckett's 1909 book The Spirit of the Downs.

[9] The occultists Aleister Crowley and his associate Victor Neuburg, who lived in Steyning two miles away from Chanctonbury Ring, were reportedly convinced that the site was a "place of power" for its pre-Christian religious significance.

It is unclear whether they actually visited it, but Neuberg published poems about the supposed mystic power of the site and imagined gruesome Druidic sacrifices taking place there.

[9] In his 2013 travelogue The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot, Robert Macfarlane gives an account of an unsettling experience sleeping out on Chanctonbury Ring one summer night, during which he is woken by unearthly screaming at 2 am.

[20] The ring and immediate area are the setting for The Sussex Downs Murder (1936) by John Bude and reprinted in the British Library Crime Classics.