Duncorn Hill is an English, landmark, rounded hill with a flat top close to the
Fosse Way. It is on a
limestone plateau south of
Bath in Somerset and summits at 585 feet (178 m) above sea level.[1] The hill's name derives from
Celticdin for
fort and corn meaning
horn shaped.[2]
Geology
The northern slopes of Duncorn Hill, as seen from SE of
Wilmington
The hill's
bedrock is limestone of the
Great Oolite Group[3] with deposits of
fuller's earth[4] containing
fossil shellfish.[5] This is typically covered with a free draining soil layer of 5–6 inches (13–15 cm), mostly brown or greyish brown but with some yellow patches.[6]
History
It has been speculated Duncorn Hill had been the site of a
Bronze or
Iron Agehill fort.[7][8] Field investigations were undertaken in 1966, but no evidence of a fort was found.[9] The
scarps previously thought to be part of a man-made structure were shown to be natural geological formations. Investigators found no evidence of the
cairns described in 18th century descriptions.[10] Nevertheless in 1975,
Ralph Whitlock wrote of Iron Age, occupied, hilltop earthworks.[11]
^Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and the Museum of Economic Geology in London.
Geological Survey of Great Britain. 1876. pp. 126, 131.
^Mckerrow, William Stuart (February 1953). "Variation in the Terebratulacea of the Fuller's Earth Rock". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 109 (1–4): 97–124.
doi:
10.1144/GSL.JGS.1953.109.01-04.06.
S2CID129156166.
^Low, A James (1938). "Bath, Somerset". Journal of the South Eastern Agricultural College (41): 189–195.