Towering above the Dorset landscape, Maiden Castle isn’t just Britain’s largest Iron Age hillfort — it’s a place where Neolithic enclosures, Roman temples and medieval field lines collide. Discover the secrets behind its mighty earthworks, the people who lived here, and why this ancient site still commands the land today.
In the Iron Age world where might was right, owning a hillfort as huge as Maiden Castle was a massive status symbol. With multiple ramparts and ditches rippling to the top of a prominent hill, Maiden Castle protected a tribe’s assets – livestock, crops and people – while also asserting its dominance over the farming landscape as far as the eye could see from the summit and beyond.
Nowadays, that view includes Dorchester and its famous modern suburb Poundbury, built on land owned by – and according to the wishes of – the the Duchy of Cornwall, with the endorsement of King Charles III when he was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall.
Today, Maiden Castle is less about tribal dominance and more about wild beauty, windswept views and the thrill of walking through 2,500 years of layered history.
What was Maiden Castle used for historically?
Maiden Castle was not always this grand, having begun life as a stock enclosure about 6,000 years ago. The ‘castle’ itself was begun in about 600BC but tripled in size 150 years later to encompass almost 50 acres. The local tribe, the Durotriges, must have been doing very well.
The discovery of Roman remains at Maiden Castle
Some archeologists have claimed it was besieged and destroyed by the Romans in the first century AD, but there’s little evidence for this – though the site may have held a Roman garrison. There are even the remains of a Roman temple within the hillfort dating from the late fourth century, just when the last legions were leaving Britain.
Maiden Castle today: how it's changed
Visiting today can be a strange and eerie experience as you wander the maze of ramparts and ditches to arrives at the inner, empty grassy plateau where only skylarks and rabbits now live.
Without the benefit of aerial photographs, it can be hard to grasp the scale and strategic positioning of the various ramparts. The weathered information boards reveal how a large settlement might have been contained here. But it’s much more fun to simply allow your imagination to populate this rather desolate place.
The site’s long lifespan is evident in its layers: Neolithic enclosures, Iron Age defences, a Roman temple, and even medieval field boundaries cut through the plateau. Maiden Castle isn’t just Iron Age — it’s a showcase of British history.
Sheep still graze the site, much as livestock would have done in the Iron Age. In fact, the land around Maiden Castle has likely been continuously farmed for thousands of years — a rare link between ancient and modern Dorset.
A formidable fortress: Maiden Castle as a feat of engineering
The sheer bewildering scale only serves to highlight just what an incredible feat of precision pre-industrial engineering Maiden Castle was. Even today, some of the ramparts rear up 6m (20ft). With wooden palisades atop each rampart, backed up by heavily armed defenders, it’s little wonder that there is no evidence the castle was ever stormed.
Where is Maiden Castle?
Maiden Castle is an easy two-mile walk from Dorchester. From the town centre, take Weymouth Avenue (a Roman road) south until your reach Maumbury Rings – a Neolithic earthwork within the town that was later adapted by the Romans as an amphitheatre. It’s now a public park and the perfect appetiser for the castle ahead.
Head south-west along Maiden Castle Road. This lane takes you over the A35, and eventually on to well signposted footpaths that lead up through the outer ramparts and back 2,500 years.
How to get to Maiden Castle
Dorchester is served by two mainline railway stations.
Contact Maiden Castle
Maiden Castle
0870 333 1181
english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/maiden-castle/
See archaeological finds from Maiden Castle at Dorset County Museum
Dorset County Museum
High West Street
Dorchester
DT1 1XA
01305 262735
Recommended accommodation near Maiden Castle
The Westwood House
29 High West Street
Dorchester
DT1 1UP
01305 268018
Top image credit: Getty Images
