Loughton Camp Iron Age Hill Fort

Loughton Camp is an Iron Age Hill Fort. It dates from around 500BC. It is located at one of the highest points of Epping Forest in a position that makes it easy to defend.

The site encloses an area of approximately four hectares.

The hill fort is believed to have been was used as animal folds in times of attack from other tribes or to provide look out posts and boundary markers between the Trinovantes and the Catevellauni.

The site is on a foundation of clay with very little availability of stone in the vicinity to build the defences. The ready availability of clay is one factor that would have contributed to the development of an Earthwork with raised embankments as this would take advantage of the resources that were available locally. Originally the banks would have been about 3m high and the ditches surrounding them 3m deep. All the construction would have been done by hand using wooden or bone tools. The deep valley to the west of the site enhances the defensive position as potential attackers would have been visible from a considerable distance. A spring rises within the boundaries of the remains of the Hill Fort.

Loughton Camp was use until after the Roman invasions. Local legend says that Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni who rebelled against Roman rule in the  1st century A.D. may have made use of the Camp but there is no historical evidence to support this.

The Earthworks and Embankments were largely forgotten until Benjamin Harris Cowper rediscovered them in 1872. The Essex Field Club mounted an excavation in 1882. The plan in the picture relates to that excavation

In more recent times the (in)famous Highwayman Dick Turpin was said to have had his hide out here, however at least two other spots in the Forest also lay claim to have been Dick’s Den!

The coordinates given are for one of the information boards on the western edge of the site.

A suggested Car Parking spot is N 51° 39.911 E 000° 02.903. Although there is no marked trail from the car park to the cache site it is easy to reach through the forest.

Access Restrictions

As a scheduled Ancient Earthworks pedestrian access is permitted to all areas, however both cycles and horses are forbidden. Even though there is obvious usage by mountain bikes, please do not cycle anywhere either on or over the Embankments. The cache site is available at all times.

A license to ‘place’ this Earthcache has been obtained from the Senior Forest Keeper. Please comply with the key terms of the license which include:

• Not interfering with, damaging or removing any part of the location or surrounding areas including trees, shrubs, grass, flora or fauna.
• Not marking any tree or otherwise leaving any permanent marks.
• Not causing annoyance or inconvenience to other users of the location or surrounding area.

Cache Objective

The objective of this Earthcache is to learn about and understand  the physical size and nature of Loughton Camp, observe how erosion and other factors have changed it since it’s original construction and appreciate why the location might have been chosen.

There are three tasks that you must complete in order to claim this cache you should email the answers to the first two to me via the Geocaching.com profile and post the picture from the third task with your log entry

1. By walking around the top of the embankment, estimate how long it would have taken for a sentry to complete a complete circuit of the perimeter. This task will help you appreciate the overall scale of the structure.
2. Whilst you are on patrol, discover the highest spot above the path that surrounds the earthworks and estimate how high the embankments are now. This task will help you appreciate how high the embankments would have been originally.
3. Take a photo of yourself close to any of the information boards describing the cache and post it with your log. If you don’t have a camera with you or you prefer not to post photos of yourself email me via the Geocaching.com profile how many information boards there are at the cache site.

Other EarthCaches

You can find out more about EarthCaches and the EarthCache Masters programme by visiting the EarthCache Website (British Counties count as being equivalent to U.S. States for various awards)