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Maiden Castle is a Neolithic and Iron Age hillfort located near Dorchester in Dorset, England. The site was first occupied during the Neolithic period, around 3500 BCE, when a causewayed enclosure was constructed, and was subsequently developed into a substantial multivallate hillfort during the Iron Age, particularly from around 500 BCE onwards. The fort is characterised by its impressive concentric earthwork defences, comprising multiple banks and ditches that follow the contours of the hilltop, enclosing an area of approximately 47 acres. Maiden Castle was famously assaulted and taken by the Roman second legion under Vespasian in the mid-first century CE, an event recorded in the archaeological evidence and in historical sources.
Maiden Castle is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England under reference 1015775. View the official record →
Maiden Castle is a Neolithic and Iron Age hillfort located near Dorchester in Dorset, England. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic England (NHLE) under reference 1015775.
Maiden Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic England (NHLE) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in England. The official designation reference is 1015775.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Multi-period archaeological landscape centred on and including a slight univallate hillfort called Chalbury, two bowl barrows, part of a Bronze Age urnfield and a series of medieval strip fields (5.3 km), Group of barrows E of Northdown Barn (5.8 km), Barrow 200yds (180m) N of the White Horse (6 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Maiden Castle's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Maiden Castle stands on White Chalk Subgroup, bedrock that formed in the Maastrichtian. The rock here is chalk.