Hardown Hill

{{Short description|Hill in Dorset, England}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox mountain

| name = Hardown Hill

| photo = Hardown Hill - From Golden Cap.jpg

| photo_caption = Hardown Hill from the south near Golden Cap

| elevation_m = 207

| elevation_ref =

| prominence_m = 154

| prominence_ref =

| parent_peak = Lewesdon Hill

| listing = Marilyn

| location = Dorset, England

| range = Marshwood and Powerstock Vales

| coordinates = {{coord|50|44|47.88|N|2|50|32.84|W|type:mountain|display=inline,title}}

| grid_ref_UK = ST405942

| topo = OS Landranger 193

Explorer 116

| type =

| age =

| last_eruption =

| first_ascent =

| easiest_route =

}}

Hardown Hill (207 metres, 679 feet high[http://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/googlemaps.php?qu=S&rf=2902 Hardown Hill] at the Database of British and Irish Hills. Accessed on 22 Mar 2013.) is a hill between Ryall and Morcombelake in the county of Dorset, England. It rises west of the South Dorset Downs, close to the Dorset coast, and overlooks the Marshwood Vale to the north. Its prominence qualifies it as one of Dorset's four Marilyns and it is listed as one of the "top 12 Dorset views to take your breath away" by Dorset's official tourist website.[http://www.visit-dorset.com/dbimgs/bod%20views.pdf Top 12 Dorset views to take your breath away]{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} at www.visit-dorset.com. Accessed on 3 May 2013.

The hill lies about 6 kilometres west of Bridport and about 500 metres north of the A 35 road. It is not nearly as well known as its southern extremity, Golden Cap, which is a spectacular bluff on the coast, 2 kilometres to the south. From the top of the hill, which is owned by the National Trust,[http://www.dorsetrigs.org.uk/southwestrigs/hardownhill/ Hardown Hill] at www.dorsetrigs.org.uk. Accessed on 22 Mar 2013. there are impressive views that take in Thorncombe Beacon, Chardown Hill, Quarry Hill and Langdon Hill.

There is a group of ten barrows, mostly covered in gorse and bracken, about 300 metres north of the summit above the hamlet of Ryall.[http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/11445/hardown_hill.html Hardown Hill] at www.themodernantiquarian.com. Accessed on 22 Mar 2013. These barrows are thought to be of disc and bowl form, likely dating to the Bronze Age.Grinsell, L.V. 1959. Dorset Barrows. Dorchester: Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, p.142. Wyatt Wingrave excavated fifteen artefacts dating to the Early Middle Ages in 1916, which he interpreted as the associated objects of an early

Anglo-Saxon inhumation burial.Wingrave, W. 1931. ‘An Anglo-Saxon burial on Hardown Hill’, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 53. 247–9. No skeletal remains were found, and it is not clear which of the barrows was excavated. Vera Evison later reinterpreted the assemblage as a group of Anglo-Saxon burials that represented secondary interments in a Bronze Age barrow.Evison, V.I. 1968. ‘The Anglo-Saxon finds from Hardown Hill’, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 90. 232–40. A recent consideration of the context and a reclassification of the artefacts has cast doubts on the burial interpretation, and has instead interpreted the assemblage as a hoard.[https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003581514000250 Austin, M. 2014. 'Rethinking Hardown Hill: Our Westernmost Early Anglo-Saxon Cemetery?', Antiquaries Journal, 94. 49-69]