Sandy Lodge, Sandy. Promontory Fort
Mowsbury Hillfort > Beds Hillforts
Promontory Fort / Cliff Castle.
Remains of an oval Iron Age promontory fort, 150m from the Galley Hill fort, the western part of which was destroyed in 19th century by quarrying.
A hitherto unrecorded earthwork discovered in 1967 in the grounds of the RSPB Bird Sancturary at Sandy Lodge. It consisted of a substantial bank and ditch cutting of the spur of a hill on the south-western side of the Nature Reserve. Limited excavations were carried out in 1968 and 1969. The ditch was found to be an artificially deepened dry-valley cutting across the northern end of the spur with a rampart up to 5 feet 6 inches high fading out towards the east. The bank was made of sand with little in the way of revetting. The ditch also had a stepped appearance, suggesting that it was unfinished. Excavations in the interior produced no structural features, but about 25 Iron Age 'A' sherds were found in a layer of sand,together with Neolithic and Mesolithic flints. The early pottery and simplicity of the construction of the rampart point to an early date for the hillfort. The period of occupation was probably short, and the defences may not have beencompleted. First occupied in the very early Iron Age. It probably would have had wooden palisades rather than a more hefty earthen bank and ditch.