Uffington Castle

Uffington Castle on Whitehorse Hill viewed from the west.

Uffington Castle is an early Iron Age (with underlying Bronze Age) hill fort in Oxfordshire, England. It covers about 32,000 square metres and is surrounded by two earth banks separated by a ditch with an entrance in the eastern end. A second entrance in the western end was apparently blocked up a few centuries after it was built . The original defensive ditch was V-shaped with a small box rampart in front and a larger one behind it. Timber posts stood on the ramparts. Later the ditch was deepened and the extra material dumped on top of the ramparts to increase their size. A parapet wall of sarsen stones lined the top of the innermost rampart. It is very close to the Uffington White Horse.

Excavations have indicated that it was probably built in the 7th or 8th century BC and continued to be occupied throughout the Iron Age. Isolated postholes were found inside the fort but no evidence of buildings. Pottery, loom weights and animal bone finds suggest some form of occupation however.

The most activity appears to have been during the Roman period as the artefacts recovered from the upper fills of the ditch attest. The ramparts were remodelled to provide more entrances and a shrine seems to have been built in the early 4th century AD.

Two oblong mounds, one containing 46 Romano-British burials and one containing 8 Saxon burials, lie nearby.

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  Uffington Castle ditch and ramparts.

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  Western side of Uffington Castle hill fort.

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  The ditch and bank on the southeast side.

References

• Miles, D., et al., 2003, Uffington White Horse and its Landscape: Investigations at White Horse Hill, Uffington, 1989-95 and Tower Hill, Ashbury, 1993-4, Oxford Archaeology, ISBN 0-947816-77-1

External links

• Ancient Britain - Uffington Castle
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcRNKkkAWO8
• Research data: Wessex Hillforts Survey - extensive three-year study by English Heritage and Oxford University

See also

• Wayland's Smithy
• White Horse Hill
• Ridgeway
• Map sources for Uffington Castle