Friday 2 October 2015

Maiden Castle

 I was working at Southampton and had to go to Bridgewater, so I thought I would take the scenic rout via Dorchester and have a look at the biggest Iron age fort in the UK


 Main entrance





 Top of wall 3 looking out of main entrance
 Looking north to Dorchester
 The top plain

 Ditch between wall 2 and 3, very steep












 Lines in the ditch walls made by generations of sheep cropping the grass

 Bottom of ditch between wall 2 and 3

 Top of wall 2 looking at wall 3
 Ditch between wall 1 and 2

 Top of wall 1, you cannot even see wall 3 over wall 2
 Dorchester to the North
 The castle looking south from the access road



4 comments:

Ian said...

I've never been there and your photos give a great sense of how massive the site is - it looks like it could easily be defended now! Oswestry is pretty well intact but a fraction of the size of that monster. Glad to see you're getting your work/wargames balance right!

jono said...

Looks like some of the sites Mary and I visited on the Somme.

mark said...

The walls were so steep, I wouldn't have liked to assault them in heavy armour, carrying a shield and taking fire from above.
I must sort out some ancient siege rule as this was one of the castle's that Vespasian and the 2nd assaulted on their drive west (marching with the eagles)

Russ said...

Deb & I stayed about 1/4 mile away in 2012, we visited the castle a few times during our week and really enjoyed the atmosphere of the place. It's bloody massive for sure!