Holmbury Hill

Holmbury Hill is a wooded area of 261 m above sea level and the site of an Iron Age hillfort. The Old Saxon word "holm" can be translated as hill and "bury" means fortified place. It sits along the undulating Greensand Ridge its summit being 805 m from the elevated and tightly clustered small village of Holmbury St. Mary in Surrey, England which was traditionally part of Shere, 8 km away.

Archaeology and history
Excavation of the hillfort in 1929 by S. E. Winbolt indicated that it dated to the 1st Century AD and may have been constructed by Belgic tribes of Celts who were settling this part of Britain in the period prior to the Roman invasion of Britain. The fort was defended by double ramparts to the west and north with escarpments on the eastern and southern slopes. The outer ditches were originally about three metres deep and six metres wide. The inner ditches were considerably larger, some four metres deep and nine metres wide.

Geography
At 261 m Holmbury Hill is the fourth highest point in the county. It is 3.2 km west of Leith Hill, the highest point in Surrey at 294 m, separated by a deep ravine draining north and south. It is 21.5 km north-east of Gibbet Hill, Hindhead, the second highest point in Surrey at 272 m. The major hills of Surrey do not form one ridge. The third highest point in the county, unlike all of the other highest six which are in the Greensand Ridge, is Botley Hill (269.6 m) 32 km the north east in Woldingham civil parish on the North Downs, the other main range of hills in Surrey. The hills between Botley Hill and Gibbet Hill together comprise the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

In total 3000 acre of surrounding forest, the Hurtwood SSSI, is maintained by the Friends of the Hurtwood which comprises: Holmbury Hill, Pitch Hill, Winterfold, Shere Heath, Farley Heath and part of Blackheath Common.

The sedimentary sandstone bedrock of Holmbury Hill is part of the Hythe Beds, laid down in shallow seas approximately 113 to 126 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period. The sandstone mass overlays the weaker Atherfield Clay Formation, a sedimentary mudstone also laid down in the shallow seas of the Cretaceous. This combination is very prone to vertical landslip and gives rise to steep escarpments.