Bincknoll Castle
| Bincknoll Castle | |
|
Wiltshire | |
|---|---|
 Bincknoll Castle | |
| Type: | Hill fort |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU107793 |
| Location: | 51°30’46"N, 1°50’48"W |
| History | |
| Built Iron Age or Norman | |
| Information | |
Bincknoll Castle, or Bincknoll Camp, is the site of a possible Iron Age univallate hillfort on the Marlborough Downs of Wiltshire.
The site lies on the end of a triangular promontory on the escarpment beneath the Ridgeway to the south. The steeply contoured sides offer excellent natural defences with only the level lands to the south offering easy access. The suggestion that the site originates in the Iron Age is currently unproven. Pottery found on site has been Roman or later in date.
The current earthworks appear to demonstrate a Norman motte and bailey castle of considerable natural strength. It is likely that Gilbert of Breteuil, after the Norman conquest, acquired a block of manors centred on Broad Hinton and built the castle to oversee them. The 'motte', now severely mutilated by later quarrying, measures approximately 170 feet in diameter by 10 feet high, and its ditch is 8 feet deep. The inner enclosure has a bank and ditch 11 feet high dividing it from the outer enclosure, with a causeway entrance. The earthworks of the now deserted hamlet of Bincknoll, which grew up outside the castle, may be discerned in Bincknoll Dip, sloping away to the north.[1]
Location
The site is located to the west of the village of Wroughton, and to the north of the village of Broad Hinton, in northern Wiltshire. The site has a summit of 640 feet above sea level and is easily accessible from the White Horse Trail, and other public footpaths.
Barbury Castle hill fort is about three and a half miles away to the south-east.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Bincknoll Castle) |