Clovelly Dykes, a concentric multi enclosure plateau hill fort, is situated 'on level ground at about 700ft. above sea level. It occupies a nodal point in the hill-system, being on the watershed at the junction of three ridgeways'.

The southern ridgeway approached the southwest corner of the fort, joined with the western ridgeway and paralleled the western embankment and ditch, entering the fort at the north west gate.

The north central gateway opened on to "an ancient roadway paved with large square stones" leading to the village of Clovelly. The eastern ridgeway entered the fort through the northeastern entrance.

The one and a half miles of earthworks enclose an area of twenty three acres making this one of the largest hill forts in  south west England. All three northern entrances lead to nearby sources of water and each entrance grants easy access to all three western strip enclosures.

Clovelly Dykes, like the other multivallate, hill-slope forts of the south west, was built in the second or first century BC ( iron age B ) and are contemporary with promontory and contour forts of the area. 

That two distinctly different designs were built at the same time suggests different uses

Contour hillforts and promontory forts were defended settlements; military structures for security of homes. The multivallate hill-slope forts were not. Their role was primarily economic; their secondary role was to keep invaders out, but their primary role was to keep cattle in. Animals gathered for export by sea.

The economy of Dumnonia was built on trade. Tin and cattle according to the ancient writers . 

They were economic, built to meet a particular need of the south western economy, reliant as it was on the trade routes with the Mediterranean. They needed secure places to hold cattle, their primary export.

In it's original incarnation Clovelly Dykes was a cattle pen, a twenty three acre cattle pen surrounded by a mile and a half of earthen banks. 

Whether Clovelly Dykes was still in use as a livestock shelter by the time of Arthur is not clear, certainly, exports were still an important part of the flourishing economy of the region; but what can't be disputed is whether the earthen banks of Clovelly Dykes stood in the time of Arthur. They are still imposing today.

Hillforts were not merely military fortifications, they were defensive settlements. 

People lived in the huts within the ramparts.

This is the base of a mounted strike force.

The exits are downhill, and on the opposite side from the obvious approach. 

Some parts are protected by three rings of earthworks, other parts by only one. 

Why?

 Because the occupants of those parts aren't supposed to be in the fort if it is attacked,  they should be outside mounted and armed.

This was the military and administrative heart of Arthur's Britain.

This was Camelot

Welsh tradition names Arthur's capital as Kelliwic ( -wic = settlement; latin -vicus) and places it in Cornwall.

Camelot or Grail Castle?

Beli = Pelles = Velly

First written mention of 'Camelot' appears to be in 'Lancelot' by Chretien de Troyes (c1170).

In the nineteenth century Clovelly Dykes was proposed as the site of the Battle of Cynuit (Hubba the Dane and Alfred's men)

"Camelot was destroyed with all the significant features of Logres when Mark invaded after the death of Lancelot." (from 'Palamedes' circa 1260.)

related pages

Beacons