Digging Ditches

       The Celtic family farms kept growing larger and larger.  From 2 acres, to 5 acres, to 15 acres, to 30 acres, to greater than 65 acres, and some became even larger.  More and more folks joined together to help the cause of survival.  Higher ground seemed the best place to build these places, and it would take a collective effort to accomplish such tasks.  Walls all around, and special structures to help throw things down instead of up might be of special advantage.  What about digging some ditches around the base of the walls to give a little extra effort keeping those out of the farm who wanted to get in uninvited. It might take a while to get everything together especially around the slops of these irregular shaped hills.  Maybe we could call these fortified hills a "hill fort".  Hum...just a thought.

    Well, come to find out, some folks later down the pages of history used such terms and even wrote a book.

      Geoffrey Williams first published this text in 1993 as a visitor's guide to the so labeled hillforts of England. The drawing on the cover shows how a fortified wall might have looked.  He gives directions on a large number of these places describing how each could be visited. My own drawings of such a rampart follows:

          What a deal. Figure labeled 1 tries to show a general overview.  A= a small incline, B=a drop down to a ditch, C= the wall facing you after you dropped down to B, and D=the platform the person standing above could toss something down upon your head.  An angled view is numbered 2, and number 3 shows a side view to give some impression of the ups and downs of this defensive structure which may go all the way around the farm, and on various levels about the place.  Can you imagine what it took to dig all the ditches 6-8 ft. down [B], while pilling up a ridge of dirt 4-5 ft. high [A]? In addition, while standing in B, a wall was being built above your head some 6-8 ft. high? Digging ditches indeed it would be.