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Bigbury Wood Hill Fort, Kent

The North Downs Way at Bigbury Woods

This hill fort near Hambledown, just outside Canterbury in Kent, dates to around 100BC. Excavations have revealed a sequence of development which began with a small settlement defended by a ditch. A hill fort was then built which had two or three ditches and a fortified entrance. The fort was largely a place of refuge for people living in the vicinity, but the remains of a small hut dating to the first century BC have been found within the fort itself.

Bigbury was probably the site of Julius Caesar's first battle with the Britons during his reconnaisance expedition to Britain in 54BC. Caesar described Bigbury in The Gallic Wars as "a position with extremely good man-made defences for some war between themselves... many trees had been cut down and used to block all entrances to it." Caesar's Seventh Legion piled up earth against the defensive banks, climbed over them and defeated the Britons. After this the fort was abandoned.

Bigbury is on the Chartham Hatch road, two miles south west of Harbledown.