Camp Hill, near Lydney in the Forest of Dean (Gloucestershire), is an Iron Age promontory hillfort that was reoccupied in the late Roman period, when a substantial temple complex dedicated to the god Nodens was constructed within its earthworks. The temple was built in the late 3rd or early 4th century AD and remained in use into the late 4th century, making it one of the latest major pagan religious foundations in Roman Britain.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site is nationally important as the principal known cult centre of Nodens, a Celtic deity associated with healing, hunting, and the sea, and it functioned as a pilgrimage and healing sanctuary on a scale comparable to Bath or Nettleton. Its construction in the post-Constantinian period, alongside Christianisation elsewhere, makes it a key site for understanding late Roman paganism in Britain.
Excavated by the Bathurst family in the 19th century and famously re-examined by Mortimer and Tessa Wheeler in 1928–29, the complex includes a cella with side chapels (a "Romano-Celtic" triple-cella plan unusual in Britain), a long abaton or dormitory for incubation healing, a guesthouse, and a bath suite. Finds include the inscribed "Silvianus" curse tablet referencing a stolen ring, numerous bronze votive dogs, and dedicatory inscriptions naming Nodens; recent re
Camp Hill, near Lydney in the Forest of Dean (Gloucestershire), is an Iron Age promontory hillfort that was reoccupied in the late Roman period, when a substantial temple complex dedicated to the god Nodens was constructed within its earthworks. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fort site from the Roman period in Britain.
Camp Hill promontory fort and Romano-British temple complex is classified as a Roman fort — a military site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Roman villa 550m south-west of Woolaston station (4.5 km), Stone-arched Roman bridge at Blackpool Bridge, incorporated into the Highway Bridge (7.1 km), Section of Roman road at Blackpool Bridge (7.1 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Camp Hill promontory fort and Romano-British temple complex