Maiden Castle: An Iron Age hill fort

Maiden Castle is one of the largest Iron Age hill forts. It was a settlement built on top of a hill and surrounded by walls made from wood.

It was built almost 3000 years ago on a large hill in Dorset.

The fort had complex entrances, and many roundhouses This showed how important it was to the people who lived there.

Artefacts found there, such as pottery, were made by people in the past. These discoveries help archaeologists understand what life was like for people in the Iron Age.

Created in partnership with English Heritage

Important words on Maiden Castle.

Maiden Castle is one of the largest Iron Age hill forts in Britain.

It is in Dorset in the south of England.

Historians believe it was built almost 3,000 years ago.

Over 4,000 possible hill forts have been found across Britain and Ireland.

Why did people build Maiden Castle?

The fort is on top of a large hill which is 914 metres long.

That's about as long as 10 football pitches.

In the Iron Age, hundreds of people lived there.

In Roman times, these people were called the Durotriges tribe, meaning ‘hill fort-dwellers’.

They built the fort there protect themselves because they could see attackers better from high up.

Before Maiden Castle was built, people in the early Neolithic period (Stone Age) made circular ditches (a long narrow channel dug into the ground) in the land.

People used the space in the centre to hold feasts and make flint axes.

The Iron Age people built the hill fort on top of the earlier Neolithic structure.

They made it bigger and added ramparts.

They made the entrances more complicated so it was harder to get into the hill fort.

For example, the Western entrance had a 200 metre long winding corridor.

This also made the hill fort look impressive to show off the power of the people who built it.

People lived in roundhouses in Maiden Castle.

These had thatched roofs made of wood.

Roundhouses had central hearths (a fireplace in the centre of the house) where people could light fires.

They also had large pits for storing grain.

Later on roadways were built in between houses.

Not everyone in the Iron Age lived in hill forts.

People may have lived in hill forts for part of the year, or when they were expecting an attack.

Many other Iron Age settlements were undefended, with roundhouses set within fields and enclosures.

Most of the bank and ditches that you can see today were made in the 1st century BC, over 2000 years ago.

Over 20,000 sling stones (small rounded pebbles from Chesil Beach nearby) have been found near an entrance.

They were stored in large pits ready to be thrown or slung at attackers.

Most of the pottery used by people at Maiden Castle was made near Poole Harbour on the south coast, which is more than 35 miles away.

This could mean that people traded things outside of their local area.

You can find out more about Maiden Castle and life in the Iron Age in this BBC Bitesize Primary History page.

Have a look at the thinking points below and think about your answer to each question. You could even write them down on a piece of paper or discuss them with somebody else if you want to.

• The site of Maiden Castle was used very differently over time. Neolithic people used it for feasts and Iron Age people used it to build a hill fort for protection. What do you think is similar or different about how these people used the land?

• Pottery that was made more than 56km away was found at Maiden Castle by archaeologists. What do you think archaeologists can learn about the people who lived there from these artefacts?

• Iron Age people made the entrances to their hill forts very complicated and built huge banks around their settlement. Why do you think it was so important to the Iron Age people to make Maiden Castle look so impressive?

Old Oswestry is another Iron Age hill fort. It is in Shropshire, in the west of England. Its entrance passage was over 100 metres long. Two roundhouses have been found on the site.

Look at the drawing of Old Oswestry below. What similarities and differences can you spot between this hill fort and Maiden Castle?

You might want to look at:

• size of entrances
• location
• houses or settlements

Let's find out what you know about Maiden Castle.

Are you a parent, carer or teacher?

Take a look at some of the links below on KS2 History which are packed full of knowledge, videos, quizzes and activities.