Castle Dore
Castle Dore is an Iron Age hill fort (ringfort) near Fowey in Cornwall, United Kingdom located at grid reference SX103548. It was probably occupied from the 5th or 4th centuries BC until the 1st century BC. It consists of two ditches surrounding a circular area 79 metres (259 ft) in diameter. Excavated in the 1930s, it was one of the most intensively investigated Iron Age hillforts in Cornwall.
Description and history
The perimeter of Castle Dore consists of two ditches (bivallate). The inner ditch is circular, measuring 79 metres (259 ft) in diameter internally, and the outer ditch arced round it from the north to the south-east before widening in the north east to form an entrance. The ramparts (earth banks just inside the ditch) were raised later in the fort's history – from 1.8 to 2.5 metres (5 ft 11 in to 8 ft 2 in) – the layout remained mostly the same aside from the entrance which was made more complex.[1]
Archaeologist Ralegh Radford led excavations at Castle Dore between 1936 and 1937. Five decades later the work still represented the most intensive investigation of a hillfort in Cornwall.[2] At the time of Radford's work, archaeologists tended to concentrate on the defences in the course of examining hillforts; Radford, however, included the interior and found postholes belonging to huts of at least two periods.[3]
Radford's initial interpretation was that the fort had been reoccupied in the 5th and 6th centuries AD, however later interpretations based on a greater understanding of post-Roman archaeology concluded that the occupation at Castle Dore was restricted to the Iron Age.[2] The use of radiocarbon dating at other sites lead to greater understanding of the contexts within which Iron Age pottery was found. The dating of the first phase of activity at Castle Dore was revised from the 2nd century BC to the 5th or 4th centuries BC.[4]
Quinnell & Harris 1985, has excellent diagrams.
See also
- Castle Dor a 1942 historical novel by Daphne du Maurier (1961)
- Castle an Dinas, St. Columb Major
- Prideaux Castle
References
Notes
- ↑ Quinnell & Harris 1985, pp. 123–126.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Quinnell & Harris 1985, p. 123.
- ↑ Quinnell & Harris 1985, p. 131.
- ↑ Quinnell & Harris 1985, p. 125.
Bibliography
- Quinnell, Henrietta; Harris, Daphne (1985), "Castle Dore: The Chronology Reconsidered" (PDF), Cornish Archaeology 24: 123–132
Further reading
- Radford, Ralegh (1951), "Report on the excavations at Castle Dore", Journal of the Royal Institute of Cornwall, New Series 1: 1–119
Coordinates: 50°21′45″N 4°40′07″W / 50.36246°N 4.66852°W
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