Eggardon Hill is first documented in the Domesday Book of 1086. From about 300 BC, it was used as a hill fort — an Iron Age defended settlement. It is usually held that such forts were captured and forcibly vacated by the Romans during the of 43 AD, although there is only indirect evidence for this; Eggardon Hill itself has never been excavated by archaeologists. The presence of several tumuli (or barrows) on the hill provides another indication of prehistoric use.