The first evidence for use of the Hillfort comes from the Bronze Age. Four Barrows can be found within the ramparts (see map). These disk barrows are burial mounds typical of those found across major ridges of the South Downs and other Chalklands in Southern England. The mounds probably date to around 1,500 BC. The mounds indicate that the hill was a sacred area and burial ground for local Bronze Age tribes for almost a millenia before the site developed in a defended settlement. The mounds all appear to have been emptied by looters and no human remains have yet been discovered at the site, the local soil being largely too acidic to preserve bone. There is also a Bronze-age metal work hoard from the site suggesting the associated ritual deposition of high status artefacts alonside the barrows.
The oldest part of the defensive works is Ditch K (see map). This was investigated by Eliot Curwen in the 1930's and was found to date prior to the 6th Century B.C. when the Iron Age hill-fort was constructed (over 2,500 years ago). Holmes (1969) and Curwen both noted that this ditch was completely silted up when the Iron Age rampart was contructed putting its date well in to the Late Bronze Age, the ditch runs under the later ramparts of the Hillfort and thus clearly predates them.. As a roughly linear ditch defending the flank of the hill which offers the best natural defense it makes little strategic sense. It may represent a part of an earlier set of defensive works, the overall plan of which has yet to be determined. Alternatively, it may have been somehow linked to the existence of the barrows, perhaps late Bronze Age farmers respecting and making a division between a sacred space and farmland or pasture (parallels exist for this elsewhere, such as Oakley Down in Dorset). Indeed, it has been suggested that there may be a preference for locations with existing sacred functions, like barrow groups and henges, in the siting of early Hillforts like Hollingbury (Bradley 1981).
Aerial view of Hollingbury circa1954. Shot is taken from the north-east. The hill today is largely unchanged.
The later ring of defenses were constructed in later in the 6th century B.C. The defenses consisted of a single ditch some 2m deep, behind which stood a substantial 'box pallisade' structure. The gentle banks you see now betray what would have been an impressive defensive structure consisting of a massive wooden wall rising some perhaps 2 or 3m from the white chalk-cut ditch. The gateways were also quite substantial with large gateposts and flanking defensive structures. The ring encloses an area about 400x300m of which only a small percentage has been investigated. In the south west corner small huts were found which suggest at least some kind of permnanet settlement. In this respect Hollingbury appears to be a rare example in Southern Britain of a hillfort with more or less established occupation and has remarkably elaborate defenses for its early date. Other contemporary forts such as Chanctonbury and Thundersbarrow have more modest ramparts and small, largely empty interiors. These were probably used either for temporary refuge or for the management of lifestock while grazing on the Downs in Summer.
The site does not appear to have been occupied in the Late Iron Age. At this time in Sussex larger or more elaborate hillforts develop such as those at Cissbury, Caburn and the Trundle. It appears that power and populations were becoming more centralised at this time, a process that continued throughout the Late Iron Age and Roman periods with the development of the first British towns or 'Oppida'.
A short length of pallisade and a gateway were constructed just to the west of the ditch. Again the pallisade does not appear to enclose anything being a straight section and, as currently mapped, makes little defensive sense. More excavation is needed to resolve its function. It is however associated spatially in alignment with the eastern gateway, a late feature of possible Romano-British date. These features, in conjunction with Roman potsherds found at site and suggestive crop marks aopen the possiblity that an unknown Romano-British structure, even a temple, may have once existed at the site and remain to be discovered. However, despite local tradition, there is nothing to suggest the site was ever used by the Romans as a 'camp' in the defensive sense. The Downlands immediately to the north of the hillfort formed part of an intensively used Romano-British agricultural landscape still marked by field banks or lynchetts.
The name Hollingbury is Saxon in origin and comprises three place-name elements. The 'bury' element is a common form of the saxon 'burh' meaning a defended place, 'Holl' is a contraction of a saxon name 'Holla' and 'ing' means 'the people of' or 'kin'. Taken together the name means something close to the defended place of Holla's people. There are other possible derivations with 'Holl' coming from the saxon 'hoel' meaning watching place or the 'Holla-ingus' elements could refer to 'people of the hollow', there being a very deep coombe falling away to the east of site.
There is no evidence to suggest that Hollingbury or any other Hillforts in Sussex were reoccupied in the dark ages, the name probably simply reflects the fact that the Hillfort was on land owned by Holla's kin, as was the nearby valley Hollingdean. In Sussex you'll find most hillfort names are Saxon in origin, notable exceptions probably being Caburn and Torberry which have their roots in Celtic languages. However, from sources including the poem Beowulf, we know that the people who settled southern Britain during the Dark Ages attached magical significance to mounds and other prehistoric monuments. The Saxons knew very well that such mounds contained treasure but believed them to be protected by elf-magic or powerful worms (dragons). In Celtic myths, such mounds were seen as gateways to the otherworld, where the lands of faery overlapped with our own.
The next evidence for 'use' of the fort comes from documentary sources which claim the hill was used as a warning beacon during the Napoleonic wars. This use involved the building of a small hut closest to the largest of the burial mounds. I suspect this mound was used as a suitable place for the fire itself. In the First World War the site was used for trench digging exercises which disturbed part of one of the huts. Other episodes of disturbance came from gravel digging in the mid 19th century and during the construction of the golf course.
Today the site is well managed by Brighton and Hove city council, although they make little effort to interpret the site. The biggest threats the the site comes from metal detectorists and motorbikes. The site has been forwarded for inclusion in the South Downs National Park.