Maiden Castle, near Dorchester in Dorset, is the largest Iron Age hill fort in Britain. It can be a desolate place in winter. England, United Kingdom.
Maiden Castle is a gigantic pre Roman hill fort situated about miles ( kilometres) to the south west of Dorchester in Dorset. It consists of several concentric rings of defensive ditches and steep, high ramparts occupying an area of about 47 acres (19 hectares), making it the largest hill fort in Britain, and possibly in Europe too. The earliest archaeological evidence shows signs of human activity on the site from Neolithic times. In about 1800 BC, during the Bronze Age, the site was used for growing crops before being abandoned. The building of Maiden Castle itself was begun in about 600 BC, and around 450 BC it underwent a major enlargement during which it nearly tripled in size. At the same time the defences were made more complex with the addition of further ramparts and ditches. Around 100 BC habitation at Maiden Castle began to decline but it was occupied until at least the Roman period, by which time it was in the territory of the Durotriges, a Celtic tribe. It is not really known what happened at Maiden Castle after the Roman conquest in the 1st Century AD. There is a theory, put forward by the archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler, that the Romans attacked the fort and wrought violent and bloody destruction upon Maiden Castle and its inhabitants. In fact there is little archaeological evidence to support this version of events, or even that it was attacked by the Romans at all. It is likely that the Romans did occupy Maiden Castle and used it as a military outpost, this was a common Roman practice and they are known to have garrisoned other hill forts in the South West of England. Furthermore sometime after 367 AD, a Romano-Celtic temple and also a shrine were built at the site. The remains of the temple walls can still be seen today.
Size: 4287px × 2848px
Location: Maiden Castle, Dorchester, Dorset, England, United Kingdom, UK, Great Britain, GB.
Photo credit: © Andrew Wood / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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