Ringmoor Explained

Ringmoor
Map Type:	Dorset
Map Size:	240px
Coordinates:	50.8764°N -2.2736°W
Gbgridref:	ST 808 086

The Ringmoor settlement is an Iron Age/Romano-British farming settlement in Dorset, England. It is between the villages of Okeford Fitzpaine and Turnworth, and lies on east-facing slopes of Bell Hill, on the Dorset Downs.

The site is owned by the National Trust,^[1] and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Earthworks

The site is well preserved in unploughed downland. There is a farmstead, an oval enclosure about by, with an entrance on the east; inside are levelled areas, thought to be the sites of buildings. Outside the enclosure, trackways and field systems are still clearly visible as banks in the grassland.

More recent occupation

Ringmoor Cottages, built in the mid 19th century, once stood on the site, but they were vacated and demolished in the early 1950s.^[2]

Notes and References

1. https://heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk/HBSMR/MonRecord.aspx?uid=MNA137288 "Earthwork Remains of Turnworth Iron Age Settlement, Ringmoor"
2. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol3/pp290-292 'Turnworth', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 3, Central (London, 1970), pp. 290–292