Knook Castle is a small univallate Iron Age hillfort on the chalk downland of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, enclosing roughly 1.6 hectares within a single rampart and ditch. The site sits within an extensive prehistoric and Romano-British landscape on Knook Down, where field systems, settlement enclosures and a Romano-British village continued in use through the 2nd to 4th centuries AD, indicating sustained occupation long after the hillfort itself had ceased to function defensively.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site exemplifies the typical Salisbury Plain pattern in which Iron Age hilltop enclosures were superseded by dispersed, agriculturally focused Romano-British settlements exploiting the surrounding "Celtic" field systems. Knook lay within the productive downland hinterland served by roads linking Old Sarum (Sorviodunum) and the Mendip region, contributing arable and pastoral produce to the wider provincial economy.
Antiquarian investigation by Sir Richard Colt Hoare and William Cunnington in the early 19th century recorded the hillfort, adjacent linear ditches, barrows and the Romano-British village of stone-walled hut platforms on Knook Down, yielding coins, pottery and querns of later Roman date. Modern survey, including RCHME and English Heritage earthwork mapping, has clarified the layout of enclosures and trackways, but no large-scale
Knook Castle is a small univallate Iron Age hillfort on the chalk downland of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, enclosing roughly 1.6 hectares within a single rampart and ditch. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a site site from the Roman period in Britain.
Knook Castle hillfort and associated prehistoric and Romano-British landscape is classified as a Roman site — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Enclosure and Romano-British settlement north-west of Imber (5.1 km), Chapperton Down Prehistoric and Romano-British Landscape (5.5 km), Romano-British village on Tytherington Hill (7.6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Knook Castle hillfort and associated prehistoric and Romano-British landscape