Replica Iron Age roundhouse to be built at Hengistbury Head in BCP Council Living the Round project

A replica Iron Age roundhouse will be built at Hengistbury Head to give visitors an idea of how people lived over 2,000 years ago.

The installation is part of the ‘Living in the Round’ project, which highlights the area’s important prehistoric past.

Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, and roundhouse will remain on site for three years and will enable activities and re-enactments such as bronze smelting, kiln building and costume making.

It is hoped construction, carried out mainly by volunteers, will start in the autumn.

The roundhouse will be sited next to the visitor centre and aims to increase peoples’ knowledge of local history in an authentic setting.

Local schools and Bournemouth University are all being invited to help out.

Mark Holloway, BCP Council’s Living in the Round project lead, said: “Living in the Round looks to be the next exciting chapter of our work at Hengistbury Head, which is going to help locals and visitors understand the location’s immense historic value.

“The building of the Iron Age roundhouse is a particularly interesting development, and this is something we are calling on local people and communities to become involved with.”

Cllr Andy Hadley, portfolio holder for climate response, environment and energy, said the project aimed to “introduce experimental archaeology to wider communities”.

“This will help to build engagement, bringing people together to to build self-confidence and connection to this special place,” he said.