ABSTRACT
England, Scotland and Wales together can boast about 3,300 structures classed loosely under the heading of hillfort~ and other defended enclosures (Hogg 1979). Many more than half are small sites of 1.2 ha or less which need be little more than defended homesteads: these include the rounds of the south-west peninsula, the raths of south Wales and the numerous homesteads and small settlements of eastern Scotland. As a broad generalization it may be said that the bulk of the hillforts proper are concentrated in central southern England (Figure 14.1) in a broad band running from the south coast to north Wales. To the west the settlement pattern is dominated by the strongly defended homesteads while to the east single-family farmsteads and undefended hamlets are the norm. Hillforts are essentially a specialized form of settlement: their size, complexity and siting suggests that they represent the communal effort of a large sector of the social group working under the coercive power of the leadership. If this is so then they represent a level of social organization above that of the farmstead and hamlet and may legitimately be considered as a separate phenomenon.
