Maiden Castle, Dorset
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Maiden Castle is not a castle in the pointy-tower Disney sense. It contains no battlements, stone walls, dungeons, dragons or keep. It looks like a large, curiously flat hill at a distance and - at 45 acres - is the largest hill-fort in Britain.

These hill-forts were an Iron Age development around 500 BC and there are hundreds in Britain, especially in the south of the country. Some - like Maiden Castle - were established over previous Neolithic settlements that had occupied the area for several thousand years. Excavations at the eastern end of Maiden have revealed 20 acres of Neolithic defensive works dated from about 3,000BC.

The aerial graphic on English Heritage's signboard [see above] shows how the concentric rings protected a powerful Celtic tribal settlement of the Durotriges who controlled the territory now partly known as Dorset.
Maiden Castle would have been the home of the Durotriges elite and their dependants, while commoners lived in farms around the hill.

Archaeological evidence of Iron Age man indicates usage of this hill from 3,000BC, but Maiden Castle only became a serious fortification in 500BC, expanding until the hilltop was fully occupied around 250BC.

Dorchester photos

Although a potent defence against warring Iron Age tribes, Maiden Castle did not survive long against the sophisticated weaponry [catapults, leather armour, helmets etc.], training and tactics of a Roman Army under Vespasian. The Romans took control of the hill in 43AD in spite of defenders slinging a storm of 40,000 stones [brought up by the Durotriges from Chesil Beach] at them.

The Romans appear to have treated the vanquished Celts with honour. A mass grave of defenders was found in 1937, all laid to rest with wine and meat to take on their last and greatest journey.
The remaining Durotrige tribespeople were moved to a new town, Durnovaria [now Dorchester, just visible in the picture, top left].

Maiden Hill is a favourite exercise point for locals and is about 20 minutes walk or 5 minutes drive from Dorchester.

Dorchester photos

Maiden Castle covers about 45 acres, surrounded by a couple of miles of 6m [20ft] earth/chalk walls. The origin of the name was from the Celtic language, 'Mai Dun' meaning 'Great Hill' or possibly 'Principle Fort.'
The site is maintained by the English Heritage organisation and is open all day, every day. The only on-site impediment is barbed wire fencing to prevent muppets from tumbling down slopes and damaging a few thousand years of hard labour.

Dorchester's Dorset County Museum displays artefacts found on Maiden Hill such as flint tools and bronze age pottery, as well as the bodies of Durotrige warriors killed by the Romans. Also visit the Cerne Giant 8 miles [13kms] on the other side of Dorchester.

Maiden Castle is in Dorset [on the south coast], England. It is one mile from Dorchester, off the A354 and there is a free car park adjacent; it never closes and entry is free.

The Cerne Giant is a famously rampant, naked 60 metre man carved into the chalk hills about 9 miles from Maiden castle.

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Maiden Castle, Dorset England Pictures

Maiden Castle, Dorset
England Pictures