スティンズフォードのおすすめランニングルート

遠くから見るMaiden Castle？それは基本的にドーセットの究極の、特大の草ラザニアです。地平線に浮かぶ巨大でこぶのある緑の波は、「うわー、ケルト人は芝刈りを本当に嫌っていたんだな」と思わせます。

After it raining constantly since beginning of year, this was fun to walk ( slip, slide, stumble ) down.

Hillfort ramparts were massive defensive walls of earth, stone, and timber built during the Iron Age. These tiered embankments, often topped with wooden palisades and deep outer ditches, served as both formidable fortifications and powerful symbols of tribal status.

Dominating the Dorset landscape, Maiden Castle is one of Europe’s largest and most complex Iron Age hillforts. Its massive, labyrinthine earthworks were engineered around 400 BC to protect a thriving community of hundreds. The site is famous for its "war cemetery," detailing a fierce struggle against the Roman Second Legion in 43 AD. Today, its sweeping ramparts remain a masterclass in ancient defensive architecture.

Long before the Iron Age hillfort, Maiden Castle (often referred to as Maiden Hill) hosted two significant Neolithic monuments dating to 3500 BC. These include a causewayed enclosure—a ritual gathering place with concentric ditches—and a massive bank barrow stretching 546 meters. These earthworks represent some of Britain’s earliest monumental architecture, marking the site as a sacred landscape for millennia.

Built atop the massive Iron Age earthworks of Maiden Castle, this small Romano-British temple dates to the 4th century AD. It reflects a late pagan revival, featuring a classic square-within-a-square design. Located in Dorset, its ruins offer a haunting blend of Roman architecture and ancient Celtic fortification.

Poundbury Hillfort, on the edge of Dorchester, is an important multi-period site occupied from the Neolithic through the Iron Age, Roman, and early medieval periods. Its main feature is a bivallate Iron Age hillfort with strong earthwork defences overlooking the Frome Valley. The Romans later built a major cemetery, a farmstead, and ran the Dorchester aqueduct alongside its ramparts. Excavations have revealed thousands of burials and evidence of long-term settlement activity. The site is now a Scheduled Monument, valued for its archaeology, long history, and excellent panoramic views across Dorchester and the valley.

It is very impressive to walk along the extensive ramparts and enjoy the view of the surrounding countryside.