Kelsborrow Castle
| Kelsborrow Castle | |
| Cheshire | |
|---|---|
 The former ramparts of Kelsborrow Castle | |
| Type: | Hill fort |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SJ532676 |
| Location: | 53°12’12"N, 2°42’8"W |
| History | |
| Built Iron Age | |
| Information | |
Kelsborrow Castle is an Iron Age hill fort in Cheshire. It is one of few hill forts in the county.
In the 19th century, a bronze palstave was recovered from the site.[1] It is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.[2]
Location
Along with Eddisbury and Oakmere, Kelsborrow forms a small cluster of Iron Age hill forts within three miles of each other, near the Mouldsworth Gap, a break in the central ridge that runs north–south through Cheshire. The hill forts at Eddisbury and Oakmere lie to the north-east and east respectively.[3] Kelsborrow is at 400 feet above sea level. The site overlooks the Cheshire Plain to the west, south-west, and south. There is high ground immediately to the east of Kelsborrow Castle, rising to a height of 500 feet.[4]
Layout
As well as being a hill fort, Kelsborrow Castle is a type of promontory fort, as it exploits the natural steep slopes of the area to create a defensive site.[1] The site is surrounded by an artificial bank and ditch, although there is a gap in the ditch for around 400 feet in the west. This is probably because the ground slopes sharply away where there is no ditch.[4] The best surviving parts of the bank are six feet high, and the distance between the outer edge of the ditch and the inner edge of the rampart is 100 feet.[4] The defences cover 1¾ acre, and enclose an area of 7¼ acre.[5] The entrance of the fort is probably in the south-east.[2] Multivallate (more than one series of earthworks) forts are common in southern England; that Kelsborrow Castle is single vallate, which is to say it has only one ditch and bank. The fort is similar in typology to the hill forts at Bradley, and Oakmere, in Cheshire, and Castercliff and Portfield in Lancashire.
Preservation and current state
Geophysical surveys and small-scale archaeological excavations in 1973 and 1996 indicated that there may be structures such as storage pits buried within the hill fort. The site is part of wider agricultural land and suffers erosion from vehicles and livestock movement. Animal burrows and the spread of bracken also pose a threat to the site. Although the site is designated as "at low risk", a more recent survey has suggested changing it to "at high risk" because of activities such as ploughing at Kelsborrow Castle. Five of the hill forts in Cheshire have been assessed as being "at high risk".
References
- ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 Kelsborrow promontory fort on Castle Hill, Cheshire.gov.uk, http://rcp.cheshire.gov.uk/SingleResult.aspx?uid=MCH8384, retrieved 2009-03-26
- ↑ Jump up to: 2.0 2.1 National Heritage List 1013294: Kelsborrow promontory fort on Castle Hill south west of Castle Hill Farm (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
- ↑ Forde-Johnston (1962), p. 14.
- ↑ Jump up to: 4.0 4.1 4.2 Forde-Johnston (1962), p. 20.
- ↑ Forde-Johnston (1962), p. 21.
- Forde-Johnston, James (1962), "The Iron Age Hillforts of Lancashire and Cheshire", Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society 72: 9–46
- Payne, Andrew; Corney, Mark; Cunliffe, Barry (2007), The Wessex Hillforts Project: Extensive Survey of Hillfort Interiors in Central Southern England, English Heritage, ISBN 978-1-873592-85-4, http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.10744
- Sharples, Niall M (1991), English Heritage Book of Maiden Castle, London: B. T. Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-6083-0