Waddon Hill

Waddon Hill is a hill and the site of an old Roman fort near Beaminster, in the English county of Dorset. The name Waddon is from the Old English meaning wheat hill.

The Wessex Ridgeway passes to the north of the hill summit and Roman fort. The B3162 road passes close to the western end of the hill. Lewesdon Hill is about 0.6 mi to the west.

There is no public right of way on the summit of Waddon Hill, although the hill was frequently walked by locals for centuries, until a change of ownership in the 21st century.

Roman fort
The fort is on a narrow east-west ridge reaching a height of 210 m, with steep natural slopes to the south and west, and linear ramparts facing north and east.

The fort was built by the Second Legion under Vespasian, but after the occupation of Dorset. Though conjectured that the fort originated as a temporary camp during the campaign against nearby Pilsdon Pen, Pilsdon Pen was almost certainly abandoned before the invasion and the claimed Roman ballista bolt on display in Dorchester museum is too large to be a ballista bolt.

First recognition of the site came when 19th century quarrying uncovered military artefacts from the 1st century AD written by Boswell-Stone following a lecture at the Bridport Literary Institute. The site was investigated by Graham Webster in a series of archaeological excavations starting in 1959, which revealed the full layout of the camp, except for some small areas destroyed by the quarrying. The permanent structure of the fort appears to have been built and occupied in the period 50-60 AD, and not started until after the abandonment of Hod Hill further east. The Roman road to Waddon seems to have left the main Dorchester-Axminster road at Two Gates, passed through Eggardon Hill, then south of Beaminster, to enter Waddon from the east as it passed to the north of Lewesdon Hill. In the 1950's Tesserae were found in a nearby field which may be the site of the Fort's bathhouse. In 2023 Bournemouth University conducted new geophysics in the area.