A 6,000 year story

Neolithic activities on the hilltop included the construction of an enclosure and a barrow (drawing by Peter Dunn). The impressive Iron Age hillfort of Maiden Castle was not the first monument on the hilltop - excavations have discovered a complex sequence of occupation, beginning over six thousand years ago.

In the early Neolithic, the hilltop was cleared of woodland and an oval enclosure of two segmented ditches was built on the eastern plateau.

Later, in the Iron Age, a complex hillfort with multiple ramparts was constructed. (Drawing by Peter Dunn) These causewayed enclosures, so-called because of the gaps between the ditches, were one of the earliest types of monuments in Britain. Finds from excavations suggest that the enclosure was a symbolic space where people gathered to carry out specialised activities such as flint axe production.

Shortly after this enclosure went out of use, a long mound was constructed, flanked by two ditches. Nearly 550 metres in length, this extraordinary ‘bank barrow’ can only just be seen today. This barrow possibly represented the ancestors of the community, and may have acted as a marker or boundary in the landscape.

Aerial photograph of Maiden Castle as it appears today. Aerial photograph of Maiden Castle as it appears today. After a period of reduced activity, the first hillfort was constructed in the early Iron Age. Enclosed by a single rampart, it was built on top of the earlier enclosure, and was later enlarged to form the hillfort seen today.