Looking north to Mam Tor. The line of defenses can be seen as the narrow light band below the summit.
The mighty hill of Mam Tor
(sometimes known as the Shivering Mountain because of landslides on its
eastern side) stands at the western end of the Hope valley above Castleton
with the Vale of Edale just to the north and offers as fine a view of
the surrounding landscape as just about any site you could find. The first
evidence of prehistoric use of the hill comes from the Bronze
Age but it must have been a significant place to people long before
that - indeed a polished stone axe and flints
from the Neolithic
had been found here. The first Bronze Age remains at the site consist
of 2 round
barrows near the top of the hill - one actually has a trig point that
records the height as 517 metres above sea level. This particular barrow
is quite low and is now cobbled to protect it from damage but the other
barrow to the southwest is quite well preserved despite having a large
crater-like hole in its top. Both barrows have fine views to the north,
south and west.
During the later Bronze Age and into the Iron
Age the hill was occupied as a ''slight
univallate hillfort'' which is defined as a small hilltop enclosure
consisting of a single line of defenses. Mam Tor fits this description
in that its earthwork is a single rampart, a berm, a ditch and an outer
bank that enclose an area of about 6 hectares near the top of the hill.
It is thought that the rampart was originally built as a wooden palisade
cut into the hillside before being replaced by a more sturdy stone defense
that could have been as much as 3 metres high and 5.5 metres wide on the
eastern side. Next there is a flat terrace (or berm) then a U shaped ditch
which is now silted up but which could have been up to 2 metres deep and
about 2.5 metres wide. Finally a small outer bank would have been around
1 metre high and 2 metres wide. The site was entered by interned entrances
to the north and the southwest, this second one being better preserved.
Within the internal area of the enclosure, and on either side of the main
ridge of the hill, were found the remains over 70 hut platforms which
were built by first cutting a level surface into the side of the hill
before constructing turf or stone walls and internal hearths and pits.
Excavations around and inside these huts revealed much broken pottery
as well as whetstones
and shale beads.
The southwest entrance to the hillfort.
Inner bank, berm and silted ditch on the south side.
Defenses on the western
side of the hill.
Barrow near the southwest entrance.
Satellite view of Mam Tor. The black dashed line shows the inner rampart with the outer defenses being visible along the western side while the sheer scale of the earthwork can be judged from the size of the road snaking across the lower left of the picture. The area of landslides across the southeastern edge of the hill which gives it its distinctive profile are also clearly visible.
