Castle Neroche was a motte-and-bailey castle on the site of an earlier hill fort. Evidence suggests that it was an Iron Age hill fort before the Norman castle was built as the earth works are larger than most Norman castles.
Now it's a really fascinating place; the old earth works are covered in trees with amazing views between the trunks. Managed by Forestry England.

Donnie

May 2, 2020

Great walk out, a forest with a veiw.

Mike Cree

July 12, 2024

Castle Neroche is a Norman motte-and-bailey castle on the site of an earlier hill fort in the parish of Curland, near Staple Fitzpaine, Somerset, England. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
The origin of the term Neroche is believed to be a contraction of the Old English words nierra and rechich or rachich for Rache, a type of hunting-dog used in Britain in the Middle Ages, giving a meaning of the camp where hunting dogs were kept. This also gives the site its alternative name of Castle Rache.
Iron Age
The reason for the construction of Iron Age hill forts has been a subject of debate. It has been argued that they could have been military sites constructed in response to invasion from continental Europe, sites built by invaders, or a military reaction to social tensions caused by an increasing population and consequent pressure on agriculture. The dominant view since the 1960s has been that the increasing use of iron led to social changes in Britain. Deposits of iron ore were separated from the sources of tin and copper necessary to make bronze, and as a result trading patterns shifted and the old elites lost their economic and social status. Archaeologist Barry Cunliffe believes that population increase played a role and has stated "[the forts] provided defensive possibilities for the community at those times when the stress [of an increasing population] burst out into open warfare. But I wouldn't see them as having been built because there was a state of war. They would be functional as defensive strongholds when there were tensions and undoubtedly some of them were attacked and destroyed, but this was not the only, or even the most significant, factor in their construction.

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Elevation 320 m

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Location: Curland, Taunton Deane, Somerset, South West England, England, United Kingdom

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