Maiden Castle

Maiden Castle (English Heritage) is one of the most impressive prehistoric sites in the country. This vast Iron Age fortification covering more than 45 acres dates back some 4,000 years. Its steep earth ramparts, between 60 and 90 feet high, are nearly 2 miles round and together with the inner walls make a total of 5 miles of defences. The settlement flourished for 2000 years until AD 44 when its people were defeated by a Roman army under Vespasian. There is also evidence that a small Roman temple was built here in the 4th century AD. Excavations here in 1937 unearthed a war cemetery containing some 40 bodies, one of which still had a Roman arrowhead embedded in its spine. The Romans occupied the site for some 30 years before moving closer to the River Frome and founding Durnovaria, modern Dorchester. Maiden Castle was never settled again and it is a rather forbidding, treeless place but the extensive views along the Winterborne valley by contrast are delightful.