A ritual pit packed with ash, bones and coins lies beneath this Romano-Celtic temple's footings on a Dorset hilltop above Weymouth Bay
Open accessfree to visit at any reasonable time
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
Whoever built this temple, probably in the 4th century AD, followed a plan common across Roman Britain, with a small square shrine, called the cella, at the centre, ringed by a low covered walkway held up on columns. Archaeologists excavated the site in the 1840s and again in 1931, uncovering four of the column bases; a fifth, its carved capital found nearby, is now on display in Dorset Museum in Dorchester.
Beneath one corner of the shrine, excavators found a deep ritual pit lined with reused roof slabs and packed with layers of ash, charcoal, bird bones and coins; at the bottom sat a stone box holding two pottery urns, a spearhead and a sword. One of the coins was minted under the Emperor Theodosius I, who ruled from AD 379 to 395. A cemetery just north of the temple held more than eighty burials, some in timber coffins and some in stone-lined graves, buried with combs, jewellery and pottery.
The temple is unstaffed and free to explore, any day. The South West Coast Path and Bowleaze Cove both pass close by, and it’s an easy walk up from Upwey Station.
