1. Bosherston Camp is a sub-rectangular inland promontory enclosure, crowning a ridge set between flooded inlets. The 'fish pond'; the enclosed area, about 108m by 98m, is defined by a triple bank system facing west towards the approach along the promontory ridge, the circuit resting on possibly enhanced natural scarp lines elsewhere; a shell-midden deposit within an angle of ditch produced what is thought to be an early Iron Age pin, whilst a small Romano-British ceramic assemblage is reported from the interior.

(source Os495card; SR99SE19)

2. Revised description RCAHMW 2024:

The inland promontory fort commands the level summit of an elongated promontory set between two former waterways of a coastal estuary, historically dammed as picturesque lilyponds of the Stackpole Estate. The main built defences are three straight ramparts which run between the scarp edges on the western edge of the fort. The outer pair are closely spaced, with apparent original gateway gaps (perhaps enlarged by later agricultural activity) towards their south-western ends. Following a 15m interspace, there is a third interior rampart. The main fort measures, at its widest point, some 138m NE/SW to the edge of the scarp by 140m NW/SE to the external edge of the western defences. The total area enclosed by defences on the plateau-top is 1.92 hectares.

The fort is presently (2024) heavily overgrown with gorse and scrub also beginning to take over the interior; however, the Ordnance Survey plan notes further scarps defining the edges of the upper promontory as well as some additional defensive earthworks on the south-western slopes which may suggest an original access to the southern side of the fort. No previous surveyors appear to have mentioned that the entire inland promontory here, not just the enclosed upper plateau-top, should be considered to all be part of the enclosed 'promontory fort'. Thus the lower rocky promontory which extends down to the water's edge would have been a very accessible and usuable part of the enclosed settlement in prehistory, suggesting a more realistic size to the promontory fort of around 4 hectares.

The fort is provided with an old, but still functioning, interpretation panel and stile at SR 970 947. The western external approach to the defended area should be considered of high archaeological potential and the entire site would repay geophysical survey.

Site visit: T. Driver and L. Barker, RCAHMW. 02/09/2024:

3. Description from Fenton, 1811 (417): 

‘…below the village I cross an arm of the estuary of Stackpool, under a tongue of land covered with a strong encampment, and well placed to command the inlet it fronts, and ascend a gentle slope near the summit of which is a small adit or cavern in the limestone rock; here in digging for a fox, were found human bones and a brazen spear head; and, in the morass separating it from the encampment, an old sword with a deer’s horn handle. In levelling some inequalities on the flat to the eastward of the camp, they were found to consist of human bones, probably the spot where a skirmish between the invaders and natives might have taken place. Indeed the whole neighbourhood, from many striking traditions and other circumstances, appears to have been the scene of frequent and bloody contests'.

4. Extract from: Barker, L. and Driver, T. 2011, 81.

'An additional anomaly, centrally placed in this divided landscape, is the inland promontory fort at Bosherston Camp (Rees 1992, 80). It commanded a position of great strategic strength and unusual character, being one of south Pembrokeshire’s few coastal estuaries providing a level river promontory both sheltered and once navigable from the sea (Hogg 1972, 16). The limestone cliffs along these inlets bear evidence of past use: a Late Bronze Age Ewart Park sword was recovered from Roche Point Cave (Benson et al. 1990, 182, fig. 1), on the opposite side of the river to Bosherston Camp, which may be interpreted as a votive deposit (Gwilt 2007, 316). As if to reinforce the unusual nature of this position, Bosherston Camp is unlike any other south Pembrokeshire later prehistoric fort. Triple parallel defences cut an uncommonly straight line across the level promontory providing a dramatic and somewhat brutal architectural solution to defence, with an inconspicuous gateway found around the southern terminals. Further study, and possibly excavation, is required to understand what role if any this unusual central fort played in the south Pembrokeshire coastal landscape; as a long-lived trading base of some importance the position would seem ideal.'

T. Driver, RCAHMW, 2024

References:

Barker, L. and Driver, T. 2011. Close to the Edge: New perspectives on the architecture, function and regional geographies of the coastal promontory forts of the Castlemartin Peninsula, South Pembrokeshire, Wales. In: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 77, 2011. pp. 65-87.

Benson, D.G., Evans, J.G. & Williams, G.H. 1990. Excavations at Stackpole Warren, Dyfed. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 56, 179–245

Fenton, R. 1811. A Historical Tour of Pembrokeshire, 417

Gwilt, A. 2007. Silent Silures? Locating people and places in the Iron Age of south Wales. In C. Haselgrove & T. Moore (eds), 297–328

Hogg, A.H.A. 1972. Hill-forts in the coastal area of Wales. In C. Thomas (ed.), The Iron Age in the Irish Sea Province. London: Council for British Archaeology Research Report 9

Rees, S. 1992. A Guide to Ancient and Historic Wales: Dyfed. London: Cadw/HMSO