Velata Mound Fortress

Velata on Lifuka is a ring fortress, an earth bank and ditch enclosing a circular area with the remains of a stone-faced rampart, built around the fifteenth century under the early Mata'uvave chiefs and refortified in the civil conflicts of the early nineteenth century, when fortified settlements went up across the islands. It is the best surviving example in Ha'apai. Vegetation has taken much of it and the outline reads best from the ditch line. Similar ring forts were built across Tonga in the same period, but most have been ploughed out or built over.

What you actually see

• The ring bank - the earth rampart enclosing the circular site.
• The ditch - the cut running around the outside of the bank.
• The stone facing - what survives of the rampart's revetment.
• The scale - the largest surviving fortification in the group.

When to go

May to October is the drier season and the vegetation is lower. Morning light shows the earthwork best. Growth obscures it after the wet season.

Honest expectations

The site is overgrown and the earthwork takes some looking to read. There is no interpretation on the ground. It is a short visit.

Nearby

Pangai is nearby, and Foa is north.