Bow Hill is an elongated hill ridge, high, and running roughly from north to south in the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the east. ...

, in the county of

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

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1:25,000 ''Explorer'' map series, No. 120 It has a prominence of 74 metres.

Location

Bow Hill is the highest point of Stoughton Down which lies to the east of the village of Stoughton in

. The summit itself is 2 kilometres due east of Stoughton and about 7 kilometres northwest of the nearest large town,

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...

. To the south are Stoke Down and the village of

West Stoke West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

; to the east and southeast are the villages of West Dean and Mid Lavant in the valley of the River Lavant, to the north are

East Marden East Marden is a village on the spur of the South Downs in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It is within the civil parish of Marden, West Sussex. It is first mentioned in the Domesday Book as Meredone and was given in 1086 to Rog ...

and

Chilgrove West Dean is a village, Anglican parish and civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England north of Chichester on the A286 road just west of Singleton. The parishes include the hamlets of Binderton and Chilgrove. The civ ...

Description

Bow Hill is the highest point on a north-to-south running and steep-sided ridge and there is a trig point at the top. Its crest and upper slopes are densely wooded, but the lower slopes are open downland. Various tracks and bridleways run pass close to the summit and there is a ridgeway that divides just northeast of the summit heading to Stoughton in one direction and West Stoke in the other.

Points of interest

Much of Bow Hill lies with a nature reserve, although the summit itself is not. The ridge has much evidence of ancient settlement, including a

cross dyke A cross dyke or cross-dyke (also referred to as a cross-ridge dyke, covered way, linear ditch, linear earthwork or spur dyke) is a linear earthwork believed to be a prehistoric land boundary that usually measures between in length. A typical cr ...

tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones buil ...

, earthworks and

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...

s. Of particular note are

Goosehill Camp Goosehill Camp is a prehistoric earthwork that dates back to the Iron Age. It consists of two concentric banks and ditches. The inner enclosure has one entrance and surround two levelled hut sites. Goosehill Camp is within the Kingley Vale Natio ...

, an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

about 1,500 metres north-northeast of Bow Hill on the east side of the ridge, and the

Devil's Humps The Devil's Humps (also known as the Kings' Graves) are four Bronze Age barrows situated on Bow Hill on the South Downs near Stoughton, West Sussex. They are situated on a downland ridgeway crossed by an ancient trackway, above Kingley Vale.Dy ...

, a cluster of four

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

barrows.

References

{{Authority control Hills of West Sussex Hill forts in West Sussex