Cissbury Ring Cissbury Ring is a hill fort on the South Downs , in the borough of Worthing , and about from its town centre , in the English county of West Sussex . Hill fort . It is the largest hill fort in Sussex , the second largest in England and one of the largest in Britain and Europe overall , covering some 60 acres ( 24 hectares ) . The earthworks that form the fortifications were built around the beginning of the Middle Iron - Age possibly around 250 BC but abandoned in the period 50 BC - 50 AD . Flint mines . Long before the hill was fortified , flint mines were being excavated in the area . Some shafts went down as far as . The shafts at Cissbury were excavated with antler picks , much like those at Grimes Graves and elsewhere . Flint was the common material for making stone axe s for felling timber and working wood during the neolithic period . Structure . The ditches and banks are the remains of a defensive wall that enclosed of land ; the inner band of the wall is over a mile around . The ditches are said to be as deep as three metres and were filled with loosened chalk and covered with timber palisade . The 600 foot ( 184 m ) hill is open to the public . From the top , one is able to see to the west Selsey , Chichester Cathedral , the Spinnaker Tower and the Isle of Wight . To the east , one is able to see Brighton , the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head . Cissbury Ring is the highest point in the borough of Worthing . Bronze age . Several Bronze Age barrows have been found just outside Cissbury Ring . Romano - British period . In this period , Romano - British farmers settled within the ramparts of the hill fort . Medieval mint . It has been suggested that a medieval mint which produced coinage existed at Cissbury around the eleventh century . Coins have been found across Sussex from Chichester to Lewes bearing the name Sithe , Sithsteb and Sithmes , taken to mean the former name of Cissbury in use at this time of ' Sith ( m ) esteburh ' . The coins found are from the reigns of Ethelred the Unready and Cnut . Although it is quite possible that a mint existed at Cissbury , no trace of it has yet been found . Later history . In 1867 – 8 Augustus Lane - Fox excavated part of Cissbury Ring . During World War II , Cissbury Ring was used as a camp for the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in preparation for the Normandy landings . At this time much of the fort within the ramparts was ploughed to provide food . While on manoeuvres , tanks destroyed the dew pond at the north side of the fort . A gap was made in the ramparts to accommodate a gun which was used to fire at ships in the English Channel and an anti - aircraft gun was sited by the gap . In 1953 – 1956 Cissbury and its flint mines was excavated by a team led by John Pull . The ring has many ghostly legends surrounding it and has been a haunt for ghost hunters over the years . Artefacts from Cissbury Ring can be found at Worthing Museum and Art Gallery , the Museum of Sussex Archaeology , Lewes and the Ashmolean Museum , Oxford . Silver pennies from the reign of Ethelred II ( 978 - 1016 ) can be found at the British Museum . Conservation area . Cissbury Ring is owned by the National Trust and is a legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument . It also lies within the area of the South Downs National Park . The site has been given the status of Site of Special Scientific Interest due to its nationally rare unimproved chalk grassland . Etymology . Once taken to mean Caesar ' s fort ( after Julius Caesar ) or Cissa ' s fort ( after South Saxon king Ælle ' s son , Cissa ) , both theories of Cissbury ' s meaning have been discounted . In the early eleventh century in the reign of Ethelred the Unready , Cissbury was known as ' Sith ( m ) esteburh ' , which is taken to mean the ' last or the latest fort ' . This may mean that Cissbury was the last fort to be refortified , after another nearby fort such as that at Burpham . It seems that the name Cissbury was altered to accommodate the legend that the fort was linked to Cissa the South Saxon . Folklore . Cissbury Ring was said to have been formed when the Devil tried to dig a hole in the South Downs , to allow the sea to flood the Sussex Weald and all its churches . As the devil dug out Devil ' s Dyke , clods of earth fell to the ground forming Cissbury , Chanctonbury , Rackham Hill and Mount Caburn .