Alternative name | Bincknoll Camp |
---|---|
Location | Wiltshire |
Coordinates | 51°30′46″N1°50′48″W / 51.5128°N 1.8467°W |
Area | 23.5 acres |
History | |
Periods | Bronze Age, Iron Age |
Site notes | |
Condition | good |
Public access | yes |
Bincknoll Castle, or Bincknoll Camp, is the site of a possible Iron Age univallate hillfort in Wiltshire, England.
The site lies on the end of a triangular promontory on the escarpment beneath the Ridgeway to the south. The steeply-contoured sides offer excellent natural defences, with only the level lands to the south offering easy access. The suggestion that the site originates in the Iron Age is currently unproven. Pottery found on site has been Roman or later in date. Geophysical fieldwork is planned in the near future, hopefully this will inform the debate about the castle's chronology. Pronounced 'Bynol' Castle, the current earthworks appear to demonstrate a Norman motte and bailey castle of considerable natural strength. It is likely that Gilbert of Breteuil, after the Norman Conquest, acquired a block of manors centred on Broad Hinton and built the castle to oversee them. The motte, now severely mutilated by later quarrying, measures approximately 52 metres in diameter by 3 metres high, and its ditch is 2.3 metres deep. The inner enclosure has a bank and ditch 3.4 metres high dividing it from the outer enclosure, with a causeway entrance. The earthworks of the now-deserted hamlet of Bincknoll, which grew up outside the castle, may be discerned in Bincknoll Dip, sloping away to the north. [1]
The site is a scheduled monument. [2]
The site is at grid reference SU107793 , to the west of the village of Wroughton, and to the north of the village of Broad Hinton, in the county of Wiltshire. Barbury Castle hill fort is about 3.5 miles away to the south-east. The site has a summit of 195m AOD, and is accessible from public footpaths.
Barbury Castle is a scheduled hillfort in Wiltshire, England. It is one of several such forts found along the ancient Ridgeway route. The site, which lies within the Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, has been managed as a country park by Swindon Borough Council since 1971. It is situated on Barbury Hill, a local vantage point, which, under ideal weather conditions, commands a view across to the Cotswolds and the River Severn. It has two deep defensive ditches and ramparts. The Old Ridgeway runs close by and the modern Ridgeway crosses through the castle. In the surrounding area are to be found round barrows, Celtic field systems and 18th-19th century flint workings.
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Grovely Castle is the site of an Iron Age univallate hill fort in the parish of Steeple Langford, in Wiltshire, England. The remaining ramparts stand approximately 3.2 m (10 ft) high, with 1.5 m (4.9 ft) deep ditches, although ploughing has damaged the earthworks in some parts of the site. Excavations have uncovered the remains of five human skeletons within the ramparts. Entrances are in the south-west and north-east corners of the hillfort. A circular enclosure of 35 to 40 m is evident in aerial photographs of the hillfort interior. There is also a later bank and ditch which runs through the hill-fort from south-west to north-east, and is probably part of an extensive surrounding Celtic field system.
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