Maiden Castle: An Iron Age hill fort

Maiden Castle is one of the largest Iron Age hill forts in Britain. It is in Dorset in the south of England. Historians believe it was built almost 3,000 years ago. Over 4,000 possible hill forts have been found across Britain and Ireland.

Created in partnership with English Heritage

Why did people build Maiden Castle?

• The fort is on top of a large hill which is 914 metres long. That's about as long as 10 football pitches.
• In the Iron Age, hundreds of people lived there.
• They built the fort to protect themselves. They could see attackers better from high up.
• In Roman times, these people were called the Durotriges tribe, meaning ‘hill fort-dwellers’.

Before Maiden Castle was built, people in the early Neolithic period (Stone Age) made circular ditches in the land. People used the space in the centre to hold feasts and make flint axes.

The Iron Age people built the hill fort on top of the earlier Neolithic structure. They made it bigger and added ramparts.

They made the entrances more complicated so it was harder to get into the hill fort. For example, the western entrance had a 200 metre long winding corridor. This also made the hill fort look impressive to show off the power of the people who built it.

People lived in roundhouses in Maiden Castle. These had thatched roofs made of wood. Roundhouses had central hearths where people could light fires. They also had large pits for storing grain. Later on roadways were built in between houses.

Not everyone in the Iron Age lived in hill forts. People may have lived in hill forts for part of the year, or when they were expecting an attack. Many other Iron Age settlements were undefended, with roundhouses set within fields and enclosures.

• Most of the bank and ditches that you can see today were made in the 1st century BC, over 2000 years ago.
• Over 20,000 sling stones (small rounded pebbles from Chesil Beach nearby) have been found near an entrance.
• They were stored in large pits ready to be thrown or slung at attackers.
• Most of the pottery used by people at Maiden Castle was made near Poole Harbour on the south coast, which is more than 56 km (35 miles) away.
• This could mean that people traded things outside of their local area.

You can find out more about Maiden Castle and life in the Iron Age in this BBC Bitesize Primary History page.

Old Oswestry is another Iron Age hill fort. It is in Shropshire, in the west of England. Its entrance passage was over 100 metres long. Two roundhouses have been found on the site.

Look at the drawing of Old Oswestry below. What similarities and differences can you spot between this hill fort and Maiden Castle?

You might want to look at:

• Size of entrances
• Location
• Houses or settlement