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Stop 4: (150 m) Gate with signpost indicating the Coast Path – SM 821 052
Dale Point is a coastal promontory ending in steep cliffs. Geographical locations like this are relatively easy places to organise defences against an attacker, and the Victorian fort was not the first fortification built here. Just after you pass through the gate you can see earth mounds that are the remains of the outer rampart and ditch of an Iron Age fort. The gap in the mound marks the position of the entrance to the fort.
A small community or tribe probably lived on the promontory side, protected by the rampart and ditch, while they farmed the land outside the bank.
The Iron Age fort has been excavated a number of times between the 1960s and 2007. The archaeological evidence shows that the earliest habitation was in the early Bronze Age, about 4000 years ago. The walls of the defensive bank were developed and strengthened with large stones later in the Iron Age, around 600 BC.
Continue along the coast path and down the hill until you reach Castlebeach.