Kučkuriškės Hillfort (Barsukynė Hill)

In Pavilniai Regional Park, in the Ancučiai landscape reserve, amid hilly terrain (the highest hill in the area is 287 m) lies the Kučkuriškės hillfort, also known as the Naujoji Vilnia hillfort or Barsukynė Hill. This Vilnius hillfort was added to the register of heritage sites only on 11 September 2009. To the south it is bordered by the Vilnia river, and on the other sides it is surrounded by ravines and forests. The hillfort dates from the 1st millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD. The Kučkuriškės hillfort has steep slopes 30–60 m high, overgrown with deciduous and coniferous trees. On top there is an irregular, uneven terraced area 55–60 m long and 10 m wide that seems to consist of two parts: a western part of 50 × 20 m with a natural hollow of up to 2 m, and an eastern part of 38 × 17 m whose eastern end is 2 m lower and southern side 1.5 m lower. The top is covered with deciduous and coniferous forest and has been somewhat damaged by a geodetic benchmark and by military fortifications from 1919–1921. On the eastern side of the hillfort there are four ramparts: the first 12 m wide and 0.4 m high; the second 9 m wide and up to 1.7 m high; the third 11 m wide and up to 2 m high, curved, its ends merging into a terrace that encircles the whole hillfort about 5–7 m below the edges of the top; and the fourth 5 m wide and 1–1.5 m high. To the west there are two ramparts – one 16 m wide and up to 0.5 m high, the other up to 0.5 m high. The Kučkuriškės hillfort is surrounded by several bands of ditches. Below the top, a terrace 3–5 m wide encircles the whole hillfort. The terrace has slumped and is overgrown with trees and shrubs; it is 3–5 m wide and 1.5–2 m high and runs around the entire hillfort about 5–7 m below the edges of its top.