<< Our Photo Pages >> Castle Dyke (Devon) - Ancient Village or Settlement in England in Devon

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Mabel_Smith visited on 3rd Dec 2018 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 2 The way to go from Bishopsteignton is via the steep public footpath on the corner of Berry Hill and Teignview Road. Follow this path all the way to the road at the top of the hill and go right towards the golf course until you reach the Gypsy Corner sign post, go left on the Exeter road and all the way up passed the golf course until you meet the busy B3192. Carefully continue your route over this crossroads until you come to a small fork, go left to meet Luscombe Hill road and then right along this road a short way until you see a wooden gate through the trees on the left marked 'Eordbirig'. The impressive site stretches out in a dramatic oval enclosure before you, largely clear but for a few tall trees that have seeded themselves in the muddy but flat ground. The Historic England website has this to say on the site, "This monument includes a slight univallate hillfort known as Castle Dyke, situated on the summit of Little Haldon Hill overlooking the valley of Smallacombe Goyle. The hillfort includes an oval enclosure which measures up to 90m long by 76m wide internally, defined by a single rampart bank measuring up to 1.5m high and a partially buried outer ditch which is up to 0.5m deep. To the east is a simple entrance with a causeway over the ditch. The ditch has been cut to the south by a road. The hillfort is referred to as ‘Eordbirig’ in a charter of 1044. Two barrows a short distance east of the hillfort are not included within this scheduling because they have not been formally assessed." Philip Gourd alleges this about events that took place on Haldon in 927AD in his book 'About Bishopsteigton' printed by Gerald Retallick in 1993, "The situation developed into a pitched battle at the earthworks known as Castle Dyke, within the parish of Bishopsteignton and Haldon. [...] After a sharp conflict here, Athelston completely defeated the Celtic King Howel, and continued the offensive until the Celts retreated to the West of the Tamar. To this day we have Cornwall as a Celtic county and Devon as a Saxon country. What history has been made here at Bishopsteignton!" But unfortunately this publication includes no sources of the information included within so we cannot take this claim that the battle occurred on this site as fact.

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