Here is a 400 year old cottage with walls of local ironstone and solid brickwork.
It is effectively built into the hillside and the gravelled areas are owned by a neighbour.
High ground levels such as these banked up against the outside of a property are fairly extreme. However, any slight “bridging” of the damp proof course by paving and flower borders etc can cause potential damp problems.
Suprisingly, here the damp was pretty well under control, and there was a damp proofing contractors guarantee in effect. It is likely though that at some point in the future there may be a damp problem.
Wherever possible keep ground levels at least 150mm below the top of the damp proof course to avoid such problems. It’s a bit difficult to do that here!