Danebury Hill is a biological

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

north-east of

Nether Wallop Nether Wallop is a village and civil parish in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. It is located approximately northwest of Stockbridge, and approximately southwest of Andover. Nether Wallop is the easternmost of the three villages ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

. It is part of Danebury Hillfort Local Nature Reserve. This gently sloping site surrounds

Danebury Danebury is an Iron Age hill fort in Hampshire, England, about north-west of Winchester (). Retrieved on 23 July 2008. The site, covering , was excavated by Barry Cunliffe in the 1970s. Danebury is considered a type-site for hill forts, a ...

, which is a

hill fort 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 ...

dating to the

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 ...

. It has herb-rich chalk grassland which is grazed by rabbits and sheep, and there are also areas of mixed and

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' () of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arcti ...

scrub. Flowering plants include the scarce

burnt-tip orchid ''Neotinea ustulata'' ( syn. ''Orchis ustula''), the burnt orchid or burnt-tip orchid, is a European terrestrial orchid native to mountains in central and southern Europe, growing at up to elevation. The plant is considered Endangered in Great B ...

, field fleawort and

frog orchid ''Coeloglossum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the orchid family Orchidaceae. It has long been considered to have only one species, ''Coeloglossum viride'', the frog orchid. Some recent classifications regard ''Coeloglossum'' as part of the ...

References

{{SSSIs Hampshire Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Hampshire