Hillforts Spotter’s Field Guide

A field guide to hillforts for adult history fans and walkers: how to read ramparts, ditches and entrances, rampart types, how a big hillfort grew and what hillforts may have been for, then 12 hillforts in England, Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man, a timeline and the open questions.

What’s inside:

- How to use the guide (check access with whoever looks after each site before you go)

- Recognise it: the parts of a hillfort, the view from above, and rampart types (our own drawings)

- One rampart or many? Univallate and multivallate

- How a big hillfort grew, step by step

- What were hillforts for?

- 12 hillforts in England, Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man, with what the people who look after or study them say, and notes space

- Timeline

- Open questions: six questions without one answer

- Checklist of the 12 hillforts

- Credits, licence and sources

Pages: 18 (including cover and credits). Sizes: A4 (210 × 297 mm) and US Letter (8.5 × 11 in), both PDFs included in one zip.

Printing: Print at 100% / actual size on A4 or US Letter. Inside pages use light backgrounds and print well in black and white; covers are dark, so start from page 2 to save ink.

Every fact is checked against named source pages from English Heritage, the National Trust, Historic Environment Scotland, Hampshire County Council, Hampshire Cultural Trust, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and the University of Edinburgh (checked 3 Nov 2026), and the sources are listed on the pack’s credits page. Where the evidence gives no single answer, what each source says is shown with its source.

There are no photos in this pack: all drawings, puzzles and layouts are REALLYBYTE’s own work. Drawings are simplified impressions: not photographs or copies of real objects, buildings or maps, not to scale, and not copied from any plan, print, photo or book, or from any guidebook or site plan. Not affiliated with English Heritage, the National Trust, Historic Environment Scotland, Hampshire County Council, Hampshire Cultural Trust, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, the University of Edinburgh or the Department for Education. Their names are used only to identify the sources we quote.

Licence: personal use. Print as many copies as you need for yourself and your household. Please don’t resell, re-upload or share it publicly. For club, school or commercial use, please email info@reallybyte.com.

Made by REALLYBYTE, the team behind hillforts.forts.im. Questions: info@reallybyte.com

This is a digital download: no physical item will be shipped.