Oldbury Camp

[1] It was built in the 1st century BC by Celtic British tribes on a hilltop west of Ightham, Kent, in a strategic location overlooking routes through the Kentish Weald.

The fort comprises a bank and ditch enclosing an area of about 50 hectares (120 acres), with entrances at the north-east and south ends.

[3] A spring is located near the centre of the site and would have ensured a constant supply of fresh water for the hill fort's defenders.

The ditch was widened to give it a wide, flat bottom of the Fécamp type, named after a Gaulish oppidum near the eponymous town in Normandy.

[5] The reasons for the construction and eventual abandonment of Oldbury Camp are unclear, but it may have been built by a local tribe seeking to resist the invasion at the time of the Belgae, a tribal confederation from northern Gaul.

The fort was abandoned around the time of Caesar's invasions of Britain in 55 and 54 BC and may have been attacked by the Romans, if the burned northern gate indicates an assault rather than slighting by retreating defenders.

[4] The southern part of Oldbury Hill and Styants Wood immediately to the west is now in the ownership of the National Trust, which acquired it in 1945, and is open to the public.