Lynchet

Lynchets appear predominantly in Southern Britain and many are in areas close to Iron Age forts and other earthworks, including later Roman earthworks and earlier barrows from the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.

The size, location, spacing and number of rows of many strip lynchets indicates that many were man-made.

The word is the diminutive form of lynch, now rarely appearing in the English language, indicating an agricultural terrace; it is cognate with the golf links.

[1] The traditional theory on the formation of lynchets is that they may form naturally on the downslope of a field ploughed over a long period of time.

In Loders, Dorset, lynchets form a terraced band structure similar to an amphitheatre overlooking the village.