Around 100 people headed to Oswestry's Old Hill Fort on Sunday to lend their 'hugs of support' to the ancient monument.

People young and old, with plenty of four-legged friends, took part in the hug around the ramparts of the hillfort, which has been included in land for potential development around the setting.

There were plenty of people from Oswestry there to lend support, as well as Dr Erin Lloyd Jones, who included Oswestry Hillfort in her PhD work.

Kate Clarke, from Hands Off Old Oswestry Hillfort (HOOOH) – the campaign group to protect the hill – was happy to see a good turnout, believing the sunny weather played its part.

"We couldn't have asked for a better day," she said.

"The weather being like this helped. For the last three 'hillfort hugs', they have been on Valentine's Day so we've had terrible weather to contend with, but this year was beautiful.

"Hopefully that brought more people to the hug and to show important the hillfort is to people.

"It was a good start to the day. there are always people out walking their dogs on the day and they come over for a chat before coming back later on.

"Some people come to the day to see the hillfort because they haven't seen it before.

"We've had people from all over the country, even from Yorkshire and London. They come to see how good this hillfort is.

"We often find that about 15 minutes before this is to start, lots of people turn up and it was the same again. They came up the lane from over across Gatacre Playing Fields.

"People come to see a national monument – the 'Stonehenge of the Iron Age' – and it's something that sums up Celtic Britain."

Visitors to the hug formed a giant SOS, standing for 'Save our Setting', before heading to the top of the hillfort to 'defend from enemies' before volunteers gave talks on the hillfort's history.

There were also plenty of signatures for a petition against plans for development around the foot of the fort, which have been included as part of Shropshire Council's Strategic Land Availability Assessment.

The HOOOH campaign group, while admitting they have been reassured by the council that development is unlikely, are concerned the land has even been earmarked.

However, they added that they are not anti-development.