The Roman Map of Britain Pylais  vicinity of Eggardon Hill, Dorset

Pilais (R&C 7) NEXT

    Pilais is taken to be for the Latin Pylais (the plural of pylae, 'city gates'). The iron age hillfort on Eggardon Hill (SY541947), located just north of the Roman road designated Margary 4f (dorchester-exeter) is the likely source of this name. It has two gates, rather than one.¹ Nearby are Roman villas at Spyway, Askerswell (SY5293) and Wynford Eagle (SY5795). One of these villas may have taken the name, though a Roman presence at the nearby Two Gates (sy5593) would be more satisfying. On the old County series OS maps ca.1891 there is a site just north of Eggardon Hill Farm designated British Village (site of) now marked as Field System and Strip Lynchets (sy5594).²

EHNMR-650760.EGGARDON HILLFORT; ASKERSWELL SY5494

1. 'Hillforts were provided with one or, less usually, two entrances which were necessarily the weak links of the defensive circuit'. Barry Cunliffe Iron Age Communities in Britain  (second edition, 1978), 255

2. LYNCHETS W OF EGGARDON HILL FARM Old Monument Number D0344 355280, 94780
     SETTLEMENT E OF BROW COPSE Old Monument Number D0771 355370, 94347