CLAIMED TO BE THE LEGENDARY location where Robin Hood met the feisty Friar Tuck in the famous folktale, the overgrown remains of a 12th-century moat, lodge, and holy well complex persist in this soggy corner of Sherwood Forest.
Fountain Dale’s ancient moat is an impressive waterlogged ditch, 40 feet wide, enclosing what was once a large rectangular artificial island. The feature dates to at least 1251, when the moated island was the site of a hunting lodge, the vestiges of which remain hidden beneath centuries of mud and undergrowth.
To date, little archaeological investigation at the site has been carried out. This said, the remains of the medieval manse are likely to be well preserved, having remained unusually undisturbed. The moat and its structures are listed as a Scheduled Monument of National Importance by the public heritage organization Historic England.