Cow Castle
| Cow Castle | |
|
Somerset | |
|---|---|
 Cow Castle | |
| Type: | hill fort |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SS79443735 |
| Location: | 51°7’22"N, 3°43’27"W |
| Village: | Exford |
| History | |
| Built Iron Age | |
| Information | |
Cow Castle is an Iron Age hill fort three and a half miles west of Exford, in the very westernmost part of Somerset, on Exmoor.
The fort is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.[1] It has been added to the 'Heritage at Risk' register because of the risk from bracken.[2]
Cow Castle occupies an isolated hilltop above the valley of the River Barle. It is three acres in area and surrounded by a single rampart and ditch, the rampart remaining up to six feet high.[3]
Local legend says that the hillfort was built by fairies to protect themselves against the earth.
See also
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Cow Castle) |
References
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 34989 – Cow Castle
- ↑ Cow Castle, Exmoor – Register of Heritage at Risk (Historic England)
- ↑ Cow Castle&nbps;- Heritage Gateway
- National Heritage List 1002955: Cow Castle
- Burrow E J: 'Ancients Earthworks and Camps of Somerset' (1924)
- Burrow I: 'Hillforts and Hilltop Settlements of Somerset' (1981)
- Grinsell L V: 'The Archaeology of Exmoor' (1970)
- Grinsell L V, 'Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain' (1976)