Maiden Castle, Cheshire

Maiden Castle is an Iron Age hill fort, one of many fortified hill-top settlements constructed across Britain during the Iron Age, but one of only seven in the county of Cheshire in northern England [1]. The hill fort was probably occupied from its construction in 600 BC until the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century AD [1]. Maiden Castle sits on a slight promontory which is the highest point of a plateau on Bickerton Hill [1]. Maiden Castle has no artificial defences on its northern and western sides because of the naturally steep slope of the hill, but there are two artificial banks, 35 ft (11 m) apart [1]. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the ramparts defending Maiden Castle were built in around 600 BC [1]. Built from earth and timber, the inner rampart was originally 20 ft (6.1 m) wide, with a revetment of dry stone walling behind the bank, and at least 10 ft (3.0 m) high [1]. The outer bank was originally 25 ft (7.6 m) wide and about 10 ft (3.0 m) high [1].