Maiden Castle , Dorset Maiden Castle is an Iron Age hill fort south west of Dorchester , in the English county of Dorset . Hill forts were fortified hill - top settlements constructed across Britain during the Iron Age . The name Maiden Castle may be a modern construction meaning that the hill fort looks impregnable , or it could derive from the British Celtic " mai - dun , " meaning a " great hill . " The earliest archaeological evidence of human activity on the site consists of a Neolithic causewayed enclosure and bank barrow . In about 1800 BC , during the Bronze Age , the site was used for growing crops before being abandoned . Maiden Castle itself was built in about 600 BC ; the early phase was a simple and unremarkable site , similar to many other hill forts in Britain and covering . Around 450 BC it underwent major expansion , during which the enclosed area was nearly tripled in size to , making it the largest hill fort in Britain and by some definitions the largest in Europe . At the same time , Maiden Castle ' s defences were made more complex with the addition of further rampart s and ditches . Around 100 BC habitation at the hill fort went into decline and became focused at the eastern end of the site . It was occupied until at least the Roman period , by which time it was in the territory of the Durotriges , a Celtic tribe . After the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century AD , Maiden Castle appears to have been abandoned , although the Romans may have had a military presence on the site . In the late 4th century AD , a temple and ancillary buildings were constructed . In the 6th century AD the hill top was entirely abandoned and was used only for agriculture during the medieval period . Maiden Castle has provided inspiration for composer John Ireland and authors Thomas Hardy and John Cowper Powys . The study of hill forts was popularised in the 19th century by archaeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers . In the 1930s , archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler undertook the first archaeological excavations at Maiden Castle , raising its profile among the public . Further excavations were carried out under Niall Sharples , which added to an understanding of the site and repaired damage caused in part by the large number of visitors . Today the site is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and is maintained by English Heritage . Before the fort . Before the hill fort was built , a Neolithic causewayed enclosure was constructed on the site . Dating from around 4000 BC , it was an oval area enclosed by two ditches , It is called a causewayed enclosure because the way the ditches were dug meant that there would originally have been gaps . These gaps , and the bank being only high , indicate the site would not have been defensive . Instead the ditches may have been symbolic , separating the interior of the enclosure and its activities from the outside . Archaeologist Niall Sharples , who was involved in excavating the hill fort in the 1980s , has identified the hilltop views of the surrounding landscape as a likely factor for the enclosure ' s position . Situated on the side of the hill , it would have been visible from several miles away , and when first cut the ditches would have exposed the underlying white chalk and stood out against the green hillside . The interior of the enclosure has been disturbed by later habitation and farming . The site does not appear to have been inhabited , although a grave containing the remains of two children , aged 6 – 7 , has been discovered . The enclosure is the earliest evidence of human activity on the site . The purpose of Neolithic causewayed enclosures is unclear , and they probably had a variety of functions . As well as burials , indicating the site at Maiden Castle was important for rituals related to death , pottery from the coast and areas to the east and west indicate it was used as a meeting place which attracted people over long distances . Radiocarbon dating indicates that the enclosure was abandoned around 3 , 400 BC . Arrowheads discovered in the ditches may indicate that activity at the enclosure met a violent end . Within a period of about 50 years , a bank barrow was built over the enclosure . It was a long mound of earth with a ditch on either side ; the parallel ditches were apart . Many barrows lie over graves and are monuments to the deceased , but as the barrow at Maiden Castle did not cover any burials , it has been suggested that it was a boundary marker , which would explain the limited human activity on the hilltop for the 500 years after the bank barrow ' s construction . Around 1 , 800 BC , during the early Bronze Age , the hill was cleared and used to grow crops , but the soil was quickly exhausted and the site abandoned . This period of abandonment lasted until the Iron Age , when the hill fort was built . The bank barrow survived into the Iron Age as a low mound , and throughout this period construction over it was avoided . First hill fort . Hill forts developed in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age , roughly the start of the first millennium BC . The reason for their emergence in Britain , and their purpose , has been a subject of debate . It has been argued that they could have been defensive sites constructed in response to invasion from continental Europe , built by invaders , or a military reaction to social tensions caused by an increasing population and resulting 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 located in different places to the tin and copper ore necessary to make bronze . As a result , trading patterns shifted , and the old elites lost their economic and social status . Power passed into the hands of a new group of people . Archaeologist Barry Cunliffe believes that population increase still played a role and has stated that " [ 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 " . There are around 31 hill forts in Dorset ; archaeologist Sharples , who undertook excavations at Maiden Castle , proposed that hill forts were used to control agricultural land to support a large community . Those in Dorset were situated near expanses of fertile land . Monumental defences such as the ditch at Maiden Castle indicate that the land was disputed and communities fought each other for control . This is supported by Cunliffe , who argues that the elaborate earthworks such as those around the entrances to Maiden Castle and Danebury were used to defend the weakest part of the hill fort . They increased the time the attackers took to reach the gateway , which would have left them vulnerable to defenders armed with slings . Hoards of carefully selected sling stones have been found at both sites . Constructed on a territorial boundary in about 600 BC , the first hill fort at Maiden Castle was a area surrounded by a single ditch . The hill it sits on is part of a ridge on the north side of the South Winterborne valley , which feeds the River Frome . At the eastern end of the ridge and rising above sea level , the site of the first hill fort was not the highest point along the ridge , although the highest point is the neighbouring Hog Hill and is only higher . The hill projects about above the surrounding countryside which is about above sea level . The defences were high and consisted of the V - shaped ditch and a rampart . The rampart would probably have been timber - faced around just the entrances . Elaborate timber facing would have been used to impress visitors . The site could be accessed by an entrance in the northwest and a double entrance in the east . The double entrance is unique in hill forts in the British Isles . The reason for a double entrance is unclear ; however , archaeologist Niall Sharples has suggested that it was a form of segregation . It is likely that several farming communities lived in the hill fort and wanted different entrances . The defences of the first hill fort were rebuilt on at least one occasion ; the ditch was deepened by . The spoil from re - digging the ditch was deposited on the back of the rampart . At the same time , the defences around the eastern entrances were made more complex . A bank and ditch were built outside the two entrances , and a bank was erected between them . The bank had a wall faced with limestone , which originated over away . Sharples believes this would have created an impressive entrance and was a demonstration of the settlement ' s high status . The Early Iron Age archaeology has been largely destroyed due to later activity on the site . However , nearby Poundbury and Chalbury date to the same period , so through comparison it is possible to infer the Early Iron Age activity at Maiden Castle . From parallels at these sites , Niall Sharples deduces that it was probably densely occupied , with separate areas for habitation and storage . Not much is known about the material culture and economy of the Early Iron Age , and the paucity of finds from this period at Maiden Castle makes it difficult to draw conclusions about activity on the site . Developed hill fort . In the Early Iron Age , Maiden Castle was generally unexceptional ; it was one of over 100 hill forts of similar size built around the same time in the area that is now Berkshire , Dorset , Hampshire , and Wiltshire . In the Middle Iron Age , Maiden Castle was expanded and in the process it became the largest hill fort in Britain and one of the largest in Europe . According to archaeologist Niall Sharples it is , by some definitions , in fact the largest in western Europe . In about 450 BC , Maiden Castle was expanded from . The area was initially enclosed by a single bank and ditch , with the bank standing high although the ditch was shallow . The hill fort ' s expansion was not unique ; it was one of a series of " developed hill forts " in southern England . As some hill forts were expanded , many of the smaller hill forts that had proliferated in the Early Iron Age fell out of use , as was the case in Dorset . The developed hill forts in Dorset were spaced widely apart . This , and the abandonment of the smaller hill forts in the area when the developed hill forts were built , indicates that these developed hill forts were important . The developed hill forts of Berkshire , Dorset , Hampshire , and Wiltshire were equally spaced apart , with roughly equal access to resources such as water . The emergence of developed hill forts has been attributed to Iron Age society becoming more complex . The emergence of one dominant hill fort in an area indicates that the inhabitants of a particular hill fort became more important than their contemporaries , possibly through warfare . However , a general dearth of evidence for destruction and an increase of artefacts associated with crafts and industry suggest that the reason for change was economic . Hill forts may have become important as centres of trade . This is supported by the possibility that the multiple rings of ditches often employed at developed hill forts ( the technical term for which is " multivallate " ) were likely to be not just defensive ; so many ditches and ramparts , such as those at Maiden Castle , were excessive for defence alone so were likely used as statements of power and authority . Developed hill forts were generally densely occupied ; this is best demonstrated at Danebury , where 57 % of the site has been excavated . While developed hill forts were of a higher status than their smaller predecessors , they were not all equal and Cunliffe states that the Maiden Castle ' s monumental defences probably indicate that it was of higher status than other developed hill forts . Maiden Castle expanded westwards , and the ditch was extended to enclose the neighbouring Hog Hill . The peaks of the two hills encompassed by the new , larger hill fort were separated by a dry valley . A shaft dug into the valley was possibly used as a water source . Almost immediately after the single ditch enclosure was expanded to , work began on making the defences more elaborate . The existing rampart was heightened to , and more ramparts and ditches were added . On the south of the fort , four ramparts and three ditches were added , but because of the steepness of the northern slope of the hill the fourth rampart did not extend all the way round , and only three ramparts were built on the northern side . At the same time , the eastern entrance was again made more complex through the addition of further earthworks , lengthening the approach to the site . The four - post structures common in hill forts throughout England are also found in Maiden Castle . Their purpose on this site is uncertain however , since at square they have been considered by archaeologists to be too small for dwellings ; as a result , it has been concluded that these structures were probably granaries . The presence of granaries suggests that the fort was used to control the area ' s food supply . Little evidence has been discovered for houses in Maiden Castle during the sites reconstruction in the 5th century BC ; this is probably because the site has not been fully excavated and a quarry used to provide material for the rampart may have obliterated the evidence . It appears that houses were not built near the ramparts until after the defences were complete . Maiden Castle was occupied throughout the Iron Age and its inhabitants lived in roundhouse s . The later houses appear to be organised in rows , and to be roughly similar in size , a reorganisation which indicates the increasing power of the elites over Iron Age society . Bronze objects such as pins , jewellery , and rivets have been found on the site , dating from the Middle Iron Age . As there was no local source of tin and copper ore , this demonstrates long distance trade , probably with the southwest . Although bronze was not produced at Maiden Castle , there is evidence of it being reworked . Good quality iron ore could be found in the surrounding area , but the hill fort does not appear to have been a centre for iron production in this period ; this is not unusual as very few hill forts in Berkshire , Dorset , Hampshire , and Wiltshire exhibit traces of iron production . Early in the Iron Age , most of the pottery found at Maiden Castle was produced locally – within about – however later on sources further afield became more important , and by the Late Iron Age 95 % of the pottery came from the area around Poole Harbour over away . This long - range trade has been taken as evidence for increasing relationships with groups of people over large areas and the emergence of tribal identities . Although Sharples states that developed hill forts such as Maiden Castle are not towns and cannot be considered truly urban because they are so closely related to agriculture and storage , Cunliffe and fellow - archaeologists Mark Corney and Andrew Payne describe developed hill forts as " town - like settlements " , a form of proto - urbanism . Decline . Across Britain , many hill forts fell out of use in the 100 years around the turn of the millennium . It has been suggested that this , and the contemporary change in material culture of the Britons ( such as the introduction of coinage and cemeteries and an increase in craft industries ) , was caused by increased interaction with the Roman Empire . The developing industries may have resulted in a shift away from the hill fort elites , whose power was based on agriculture . Such change is not as obvious in Dorset as it is in the rest of Britain , but there is a trend for abandonment of hill forts in the area and a proliferation of small undefended farmsteads , indicating a migration of the population . Around 100 BC , Maiden Castle ' s organised street pattern was replaced by more random habitation . At the same time , the western half of the site was abandoned and occupation was concentrated in the east of the fort . Also during the Late Iron Age , some of the earthworks around the eastern gateway were filled in and settlement expanded beyond the entrance , and into the areas between the banks . Excavations by archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler in this area revealed several houses , storage pits , an area used for iron working , and a cemetery . On the industrial site , more than of iron slag was discovered in an area of , and it is believed the site produced around of iron . The amount of ore required could not have been supplied by local sources , so most likely originated from areas of specialist iron production such as the Weald , south west England , and Wales . Maiden Castle is one of the most important iron production sites from the Late Iron Age in southern Britain . There is little evidence for burial in the Iron Age until late on in the period , and it is believed that the prevalent method of disposing of a body was by excarnation . Wheeler ' s excavations on the cemetery in the eastern gateway revealed 52 burials , but only part of the cemetery was investigated , so the total number of burials is likely to be at least double this figure . One area of the cemetery featured burials of 14 people who had died in violent circumstances , including one body with a Roman catapult bolt in its back . Wheeler used the " war cemetery " , as he described it , as evidence of a Roman attack on Maiden Castle . Roman activity and abandonment . In AD 43 , the Roman conquest of Britain began . Vespasian ' s subsequent campaign to conquer the tribes of the Atrebates , Dumnonii , and Durotriges in the southwest of Britain took place in AD 43 – 47 . Based on the discovery of a group of bodies in the Late Iron Age formal cemetery that had met a violent death , archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler created a vivid story of the fall of Maiden Castle to Roman forces . He believed a legion wreaked destruction on the site , butchering men , women , and children , before setting fire to the site and slighting its defences . However , there is little archaeological evidence to support this version of events , or even that the hill fort was attacked by the Romans . Although there is a layer of charcoal , it is associated with the iron works , and the main evidence for slighting of defences comes from the collapse of an entranceway to the fort . Although 14 bodies in the cemetery exhibited signs of a violent death , there is no evidence that they died at Maiden Castle . The eastern part of the hill fort remained in use for at least the first few decades of the Roman occupation , although the duration and nature of habitation is uncertain . Many 1st - century Roman artefacts have been discovered near the east entrance and in the centre of the hill fort . It has been suggested that Maiden Castle was occupied as a Roman military outpost or fort and the settlement discontinued , as there is no known fort in the area and it was not uncommon for hill forts in the southwest to have been occupied by Roman forces . This was a characteristic of Vespasian ' s campaign in the region ; there was military occupation at Cadbury Castle in Somerset , Hembury in Devon , and Hodd Hill in Dorset . Maiden Castle had been abandoned by the end of the 1st century , a time when " Durnovaria " ( Dorchester ) rose to prominence as the " civitas " , or regional capital , of the Durotriges , a Celtic tribe whose territory was in southwest England . According to the ancient geographer Ptolemy , writing in the 2nd century AD , " Dunium " was the main settlement of the Durotriges . Although " Dunium " has long been thought to refer to Maiden Castle , Hod Hill and Hengistbury have been identified as two other possible sites for " Dunium " . " Dunium " may have derived from British " duno - " which meant " a fort " . Sometime after 367 , a Romano - Celtic temple was built at Maiden Castle in the eastern half of the hill fort . The date was deduced from a hoard of coins discovered beneath a mosaic floor in the temple . A central room , measuring square , was surrounded by a passageway , similar to many Romano - Celtic temples found in the south of England . Nearby were two other buildings : a rectangular building with two rooms that may have been a house for a priest , and a circular building that may have been a shrine . At the same time as the temple was built , the fort ' s eastern gateway was refurbished ; there was possibly another shrine inside the gateway . Later history . The 4th - century temple gradually fell into disuse and Maiden Castle was used predominantly as pasture . There is evidence for activity on the site in the form of a few post - Roman or Anglo Saxon burials , some possibly Christian , but the hill fort was not reused as a settlement . In the 16th and 17th centuries , a barn was built over the " war cemetery " . The only other significant activity on the hill top after the Romans was a short period of cultivation in the 17th century , as demonstrated by traces of ridge and furrow caused by ploughing . The modern name for the hill fort is first recorded in 1607 as " Mayden Castell " ; it is not unique to the site and occurs in several other places in Britain and probably means a " fortification that looks impregnable " or one that has never been taken in battle . Alternatively , the name may derive from the British " mai - dun " , meaning a " great hill " . Over the following centuries , the site was abandoned completely and became open pasture , although it was of interest to antiquarian s . Thomas Hardy , who built his house within sight of it , described the castle in a short story , " Ancient Earthworks and What Two Enthusiastic Scientists Found Therein " ( 1885 ) about a local antiquarian who spent much time investigating the site . In 1921 , composer John Ireland wrote " Mai - Dun " , a symphonic rhapsody , about the hill fort in Dorset . John Cowper Powys wrote a novel titled " Maiden Castle " in 1936 , which was set in Dorset . The first widespread investigation of hill forts was carried out in the second half of the 19th century under the direction of Augustus Pitt - Rivers , but it was not until the 1930s that Maiden Castle was methodically investigated , the first large - scale excavation of the interior of a hill fort . Between 1934 and 1937 , Mortimer Wheeler excavated both the interior and the defences , work that was funded almost entirely by donations from the public . Wheeler ' s use of the media to disseminate information about the site resulted in Maiden Castle becoming well known . It was one of about 80 hill forts to have been excavated by 1940 , in a period known as " hill fort mania " during the 1920s and 1930s . Between 1985 and 1986 further excavations under Niall Sharples were prompted by the hill fort ' s deteriorating condition , partly caused by the large number of visitors to the site . Under the auspices of English Heritage , repair work and archaeological investigations were undertaken concurrently . Techniques such as radiocarbon dating were available to Sharples that were unavailable to Wheeler , allowing the site to be dated . The structure was made a Scheduled Ancient Monument in 1997 , giving Maiden Castle protection against unauthorised change ; it is now maintained by English Heritage . With parking facilities and information boards for visitors , Maiden Castle is open to the public all year round . Today , the site is in the civil parish of Winterborne Monkton at .