Featured: Explore Scotland (and everywhere else) with our Megalithic Portal iPhone app

Explore Scotland (and everywhere else) with our Megalithic Portal iPhone app

Megaliths by David Corio

Megaliths by David Corio

Who's Online

There are currently, 500 guests and 4 members online.

You are a guest. To join in, please register for free by clicking here

Sponsors

<< Our Photo Pages >> The Castles - Stone Fort or Dun in England in County Durham

Submitted by Andy B on Wednesday, 26 March 2008  Page Views: 27180

Multi-periodSite Name: The Castles
Country: England
NOTE: This site is 3.348 km away from the location you searched for.

County: County Durham Type: Stone Fort or Dun
 Nearest Village: Hamsterley
Map Ref: NZ10353307
Latitude: 54.692566N  Longitude: 1.840951W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

Internal Links:
External Links:

I have visited· I would like to visit

Darrenci Elodin would like to visit

Anne T visited on 3rd Aug 2014 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4 We’d come across mention of this site from Time Team Series 15 episode 11 (“5000 tons of stone”) in 2007, and noted it because it was a site relatively local to us. Being late on a windy, but sunny, Sunday afternoon, and wanting to go out somewhere without going far, we decided to head off to Hamsterley to see if we could find this site. Following the signs for Hamsterley village from the A68, we went through the village along Saunders Avenue, turning first right up Bedburn Road when almost through the village, then first right again along Howlea Lane. I didn’t measure the distance from Hamsterley village, but it is at least several kilometres along this lane. West Shipley Farm doesn’t have a sign outside, but having spotted a sign for Shipley Moss Farm, we knew we were close. West Shipley Farm is the next farmhouse on the left hand side of the road, and has a wide entrance to the farm track, so we bumped up on one side. The track goes past the farmhouse, then a stile crosses a stone wall (broken right hand post on the far side, so be careful – having fallen heavily during a walk the weekend before, I ended up going back to the gate to the field and walking around), and down hill to what I believe is the Harthorpe Beck valley below. To the left hand side of the track, there is a modern curving stone wall with a wooded area behind. Between the trees, we could see tantalising glimpses of hefty stone walls. Following the modern stone wall, there is a gate towards the southern end of the field, at approximately grid reference NZ 10269 33059, which took us straight into the un-farmed field containing The Castles. This is certainly an intriguing site. We gained access by walking across the ditch (not deep in the south west corner) and clambering up a fallen section of wall in the same area – following tracks where other people have done this). Once inside the Castles, you are immediately within a large stone-built enclosure, away from the wind and very, very quiet and peaceful. There are vast dry stone walls, largely tumbled, but with the lower courses very much in tact. Having walked around the inside of the walls, there appears to be only one entrance, to the east of the site, and this contains a ‘guard room’, or small room, built within the wall itself. A ditch runs around the whole exterior of The Castles, although there is enough flat land between the exterior stone walls and the ditch to walk around the circumference of the walled area (avoiding trees occasionally). The eastern entrance leads down to a stream, which helps to form the eastern boundary. The site itself is on a slope, half way down the hillside, somewhat similar to Maiden Castle in North Yorkshire, but rather than having a levelled interior like Maiden Castle, the site itself slopes downhill to the stream below, which would make no sense if the site had been occupied. However, the site was wooded and overgrown, so it was very difficult (virtually impossible) to make out any internal ground features. I went onto the Wessex Archaeology web site when I returned home, and downloaded their archaeological evaluation and assessment for the site. They note that the site is likely to be iron age, although they had very few (virtually no!) finds, and is of rhomboidal, describing an area some 81.26m (west)/85.6m (east) by 65.83m (north)/79.5 m (south), with the wall in the east being thickest – 7m wide at the base. Certainly enigmatic!

The Castles
The Castles submitted by durhamnature : View from inside The Castles. 1903 image of archaeological investigation. Site in County Durham England (Vote or comment on this photo)
Stone Fort in County Durham. The Castles, near Hamsterley, County Durham, is an archaeological conundrum. A massive rectangular dry-stone enclosure, some 75 metres by 90 metres, it has been described variously as an Iron-Age fort, a Roman penal colony, a native sub-Roman or Anglo-Saxon encampment, and a Romano-British farmstead.

In fact, no one actually knows what it is. There is visible evidence of ridge and furrow agriculture within the enclosure, a distinctive cell-shaped chamber next to the entrance on the east side and what appear to be stone steps built into the interior wall nearby. But there's also a suggestion that these most obvious features were reconstructed in the 1930s by an enthusiastic archaeologist, one Mr Hodgkin.

Nowhere on the site was any firm dating evidence discovered, however. The experts were convinced from the excavations that it was most likely Iron Age or post-Roman. 'The Castles' has lost just a little of its enigma, with Time Team bringing a range of archaeological expertise and excavations to bear on the site for the first time.

More details with photos on the Time Team page for this site.
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.


The Castles
The Castles submitted by durhamnature : Gateway from outside. (Vote or comment on this photo)

The Castles
The Castles submitted by durhamnature : The flagstones. (Vote or comment on this photo)

The Castles
The Castles submitted by durhamnature : East wall looking south (Vote or comment on this photo)

The Castles
The Castles submitted by durhamnature : View from inside The Castles gateway. 1903 image of archaeological investigation. Site in County Durham England (Vote or comment on this photo)

The Castles
The Castles submitted by Anne T : North East interior corner of The Castles. The interior of this monument was quite difficult to walk around, due to the numbers of tumbled stones from the walls. (Vote or comment on this photo)

The Castles
The Castles submitted by Anne T : The eastern entrance from just south of the exterior wall. The ditch can be clearly seen between the stone wall and the bank to the centre of the photograph. To the right of the bank there is a small stream running past the site, forming a second ditch.

The Castles
The Castles submitted by Anne T : This is a photograph of the 'guard room' (small room), contained within the width of the wall at the entrance to the east of the site. Wessex Archaeology notes believe this room to have been rebuilt sometime in the early 20th century, but it's still intriguing.

The Castles
The Castles submitted by Anne T : South east internal corner of The Castles - all the external corners seem to be 'squared' whereas the internal corners seem to be rounded. Here, the slope of the site down hill can be clearly seen; I wondered if this corner was used as a 'drain' for surface water.

The Castles
The Castles submitted by Anne T : South east external corner of The Castles - all the external corners seem to be 'squared' whereas the internal corners seem to be rounded.

The Castles
The Castles submitted by Anne T : Standing on the south west corner of The Castles, looking northwards. The walls at the base are recorded as being an average of 4.5 metres wide, with the eastern wall being thicker at up to 7 metres wide.

The Castles
The Castles submitted by Anne T : This was our first view of the area in which The Castles in situated - in the wooded area just behind the modern dry stone wall. Getting closer, it's possible to see piles of tumbled stones which form the walls of The Castles.

The Castles
The Castles submitted by durhamnature : The south of the ruins from the inside.

The Castles
The Castles submitted by durhamnature : Plan of The Castles. 1903 image from archaeological investigation. Site in County Durham England

The Castles
The Castles submitted by durhamnature : View from outside The Castles. 1903 image of archaeological investigation. Site in County Durham England

Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.
Click here to see more info for this site

Nearby sites

Click here to view sites on an interactive OS map

Key: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed

Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)

To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.


Turn off the page maps and other distractions

Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 5.1km ESE 112° Lively Well (Witton-le-Wear)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (NZ1505931172)
 5.5km NNW 331° Holy Well (Wolsingham)* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (NZ0766637882)
 5.5km NE 52° Ryton Stone* Rock Art (NZ147365)
 6.6km ENE 68° The Devil's Stones, Crook* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature (NZ16483557)
 8.6km NNW 328° Tunstall Reservoir Rock Art (NZ0573040360)
 9.0km ESE 109° Escomb Cross* Ancient Cross (NZ1892830139)
 9.1km ESE 121° Eldon (Durham)* Rock Art (NZ1816528358)
 10.0km SSW 209° Hindon Edge 1a Rock Art (NZ0552524256)
 10.1km SSW 210° Hindon Edge 1b Rock Art (NZ0531824314)
 10.1km SW 218° Woolly Hills 1 & 2 Rock Art (NZ0417425028)
 10.2km SW 215° Langleydale Common 2 Rock Art (NZ0451824642)
 10.2km SW 215° Langleydale Common 6, 7 & 11 Ring Cairn (NZ0451024640)
 10.4km SW 216° Langleydale Common 3 Rock Art (NZ0427224670)
 10.4km SSW 212° Langleydale Common 1 Rock Art (NZ0487824254)
 10.4km SW 217° Langleydale Common 4 Rock Art (NZ0402324800)
 10.9km SW 217° Langleydale Common 5 Rock Art (NZ0379024318)
 11.0km SW 218° Langleydale Common 8 Rock Art (NZ0363324341)
 11.4km SW 219° Langleydale Common 9 Rock Art (NZ0317624190)
 11.8km NE 55° West Brandon Rock Art (NZ1995039900)
 12.1km ESE 101° Coundon Burn Barrow Long Barrow (NZ223307)
 12.2km SW 221° Barnard Castle Allotment 1 & Langleydale Common 10 Rock Art (NZ0237923805)
 12.3km ESE 112° Auckland St Andrew Ancient Cross* Ancient Cross (NZ21752846)
 12.3km WNW 304° Crawley Edge* Barrow Cemetery (NZ0007139875)
 12.4km ENE 56° Brandon Hill Cist* Cist (NZ207400)
 12.7km SSE 168° St Mary The Virgin, Staindrop* Ancient Cross (NZ13082064)
View more nearby sites and additional images

<< La Pierre des Fées

St Ann's Well (Castle Howard) >>

Please add your thoughts on this site

Magic Stones: The Secret World of Ancient Megaliths

Magic Stones: The Secret World of Ancient Megaliths

Sponsors

Auto-Translation (Google)

Translate from English into:

"The Castles" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
Go back to top of page    Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
Re: The Castles by Anonymous on Saturday, 18 January 2020
Watched the Time Team excavation again today having visited the site on a number of occasions. I don’t believe the reconstruction work has done any particular damage and the ridge and furrow work is understood and dated to 1780-5. Notable that it was considered productive; possibly because of the centuries of manure build up. My observation based on my archaeological experience of Iron Age hillforts; we are all drawn in by the scale of construction. Whilst most human activity is actually on the outside some distance away from the noise smell and dung that builds up mighty quickly when you enclose stock. Again from experience always look at such sites with the prevailing wind in mind and look for human habitation in the opposite direction. A pretty reliable rule of thumb.Now if that provides someone with a few pointers as to habitation and dating so be it. In the cases where hillforts have mass habitation the same applies, stock outside tends to be down wind and the only stock inside is for immediate consumption.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: The Castles by Anonymous on Thursday, 27 December 2012
these are images of the site the castles near hamsterley
on you web site
[ Reply to This ]

Time Team Report: The Castles by Andy B on Monday, 09 February 2009
(User Info | Send a Message)
Time Team Series 13 Programme 11: 5,000 tons of stone
(16 March 2008: The Castles, County Durham)

http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/reports/65303/west-shipley-farm-hamsterley
[ Reply to This ]

Your Name: Anonymous [ Register Now ]
Subject:


Add your comment or contribution to this page. Spam or offensive posts are deleted immediately, don't even bother

<<< What is five plus one as a number? (Please type the answer to this question in the little box on the left)
You can also embed videos and other things. For Youtube please copy and paste the 'embed code'.
For Google Street View please include Street View in the text.
Create a web link like this: <a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk">This is a link</a>  

Allowed HTML is:
<p> <b> <i> <a> <img> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <tt> <li> <ol> <ul> <object> <param> <embed> <iframe>

We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.