Castle

Liddington Castle

Name: Liddington Castle
Address: Liddington, England, GB

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Tips van locals

Clare

May 20, 2021

Climb Liddington Hill for some breathtaking views. Access path via Liddington Church Yard and follow the signs to the Ridgeway. It’s about a 45 minute walk to the top but you can see the world from there. Your dogs will sleep well after this one. When conditions are right it attracts paragliders from far and wide. It is sited on a commanding high point close to The Ridgeway and covers an area of 3 hectares (7.4 acres). Liddington Castle was one of the earliest hill forts in Britain, with first occupation dating to the 7th century BC. The earthworks consist of a relatively simple oval bank of timber and earth fronted by a ditch, with opposing causewayed entrances on the east and west sides. The western entrance was later blocked off and the eastern one may have been lined with sarsen stones. A palisade of wooden posts may have lined the top of the bank. During a later phase the bank and ditch were improved and a rampart of dumped chalk, excavated from the enlarged ditch, increased the height of the bank.[2] The site was disturbed by flint mining between 1896 and 1900. The archaeologist A. D. Passmore collected "everything of human manufacture which was found" during this period, and the artefacts were deposited in the Ashmolean Museum.[2] Passmore wrote about these findings in the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine in 1914 (issue 38).[3][4] The hillfort was partially excavated in 1976 (sponsored by Lamar University and University of Birmingham).[3] The excavation revealed a large pit 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) in diameter and at least 2.4 metres (7 ft 10 in) deep. The bottom of the feature was not reached and it was interpreted by the archaeologists who dug it as a ritual shaft. Similar shafts have been recorded at Wapley Hill in Herefordshire and Cadbury Castle in Devon. The excavation also suggested the rampart was constructed in four phases, the latest being in during the Saxon period. Finds of pottery suggest Liddington Castle was abandoned during the fifth century BC, with perhaps some later re-occupation during the Roman period.[5] The excavation uncovered four fragments of human bone.[3] Liddington Castle is sometimes suggested as a possible site of Mount Badon and thus the location of the late fifth-century AD Battle of Mount Badon mentioned in Gildas's De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, Nennius's Historia Brittonum and Annales Cambriae. There is, however, no archaeological evidence to indicate activity during this later period.[3]

Locatie

Liddington, England

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