Beacon Hill, West Sussex

Beacon Hill, also known as Harting Beacon, is a hillfort on the South Downs, in the county of West Sussex in southern England. The hillfort is located in the parish of Elsted and Treyford, in Chichester District. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument with a list entry identification number of 1015915. The hilltop enclosure is dated to the Late Bronze Age, from the 8th to 6th centuries BC. The hillfort defences were renewed during the Late Iron Age. The fort extends approximately 400 metres (1,300 ft) east-west by approximately 500 metres (1,600 ft) north-south, and covers an area of approximately 10 hectares (1,100,000 sq ft). Archaeological investigations of the hillfort took place from 1948 to 1952, and from 1976 to 1977. Cross dykes on neighbouring hills are considered to be outlying defences associated with the fort. As well as the Bronze Age remains, the area of the fort also includes an Anglo-Saxon burial mound, and the foundations of a late 18th-century telegraph station.