Old Sarum

Old Sarum is the ruined site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England, with evidence of habitation from around 3000 BC. An Iron Age hillfort was established around 400 BC, controlling the intersection of two trade routes and the River Avon. After the Roman conquest in AD 43 it became Sorviodunum, where three Roman roads converged. The Normans built a motte-and-bailey castle after 1066, and Bishop Osmund established a cathedral in the 1070s, later expanded by Bishop Roger. The settlement was abandoned in the 1220s when the cathedral moved to New Sarum (modern Salisbury) due to poor relations with the castle garrison and dissatisfaction with the exposed hilltop site.