Burrough Hill

Burrough Hill
Burrough on the Hill, Leicestershire
The main entrance to the hillfort
Burrough Hill
Coordinates	52°41′59″N 0°52′32″W / 52.699754°N 0.875517°W / 52.699754; -0.875517 grid reference SK76081193
Type	Iron Age hillfort
Site information
Owner	Ernest Cook Trust
Controlled by	English Heritage
Condition	Earthwork remains

Burrough Hill is an Iron Age hillfort in Burrough on the Hill, 7 miles (11 km) south of Melton Mowbray in the English county of Leicestershire. Situated on a promontory about 210 metres (690 ft) above sea level, the site commands views over the surrounding countryside for miles around. There has been human activity in the area since at least the Mesolithic, and the hillfort was founded in the early Iron Age. In the medieval period, after the hillfort was abandoned, the hill was used as farmland. This ended in the 17th century when the parish the hill was in was enclosed. Traces of ridge and furrow show where the medieval fields were ploughed. Since the 1930s the site has been the subject of archaeological investigations and renewed excavations under the auspices of the University of Leicester began in 2010. Part of Burrough Hill Country Park and open to the public, the hillfort is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

According to archaeologist Dr Jeremy Taylor "sites like Burrough Hill were the nearest thing we have to a town before places like Leicester ever existed".^[1]