Lamyatt Beacon on Creech Hill, Somerset, was a small Romano-Celtic temple occupying a prominent hilltop position in the Mendip region. The site was active from the later 3rd century into the late 4th century AD, with possible continuity of cult activity into the early post-Roman period; it consisted of a square cella surrounded by an ambulatory, with associated ancillary buildings.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
It is one of a cluster of rural hilltop shrines in the south-west (comparable to Pagans Hill, Brean Down, and Henley Wood) that mark the persistence and even floruit of pagan cult in late Roman Britain. The presence of bronze figurines of Roman deities alongside likely native veneration makes it an important site for understanding religious syncretism in the region.
Excavations by Roger Leech in 1973–74 recovered the temple plan, a substantial coin assemblage concentrated in the 4th century, and a notable group of copper-alloy figurines including Mars, Mercury, Hercules, and Minerva, together with votive items. A small cemetery of east–west burials adjacent to the temple has been interpreted as evidence for a transition to Christian or sub-Roman use, though this remains debated.
Lamyatt Beacon on Creech Hill, Somerset, was a small Romano-Celtic temple occupying a prominent hilltop position in the Mendip region. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a site site from the Roman period in Britain.
Roman building at Lamyatt Beacon, Creech Hill is classified as a Roman site — a civilian 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 building 600yds (549m) SW of Lower Sutton Farm (6 km), An area of the Romano-British linear village at Fosse Lane, Shepton Mallet (7.5 km), Shepton Mallet (9 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 Roman building at Lamyatt Beacon, Creech Hill