Hembury Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Hembury Castle, also known as Dane's Castle or the Danish Camp, is a fortified hilltop enclosure on Hembury Hill. The site lies about 1.5 km north-west of Buckfast, on the south-eastern edge of Dartmoor, on the watershed between the River Dart and the Holy Brook, at around 178 m above sea level. Unusually, it combines two fortifications from very different periods. The first is an Iron Age univallate hillfort, elliptical in shape and measuring about 250 m by 170 m internally, enclosed by a rampart, a partly infilled ditch and a counterscarp bank. The second is a Norman motte-and-bailey castle, added later on the western summit. The circular motte is about 30 m across and 6 m high, with a central hollow and a ditch. A small platform to the south-east probably served as an inner bailey, while the prehistoric enclosure most likely acted as the outer bailey. The castle was probably a campaign work of the Norman Conquest or the 12th century, and was no doubt abandoned fairly quickly. By the 13th century the cartulary of Buckfast Abbey already describes it as "vetus castellum quod dicitur Hembire", the old castle called Hembury. The name is thought to come from the Old English "hean byrig", "at the high burh". A local legend tells how captive women killed the fort's Danish occupiers during the night. The site, a Scheduled Monument, now lies within Hembury Woods, managed by the National Trust, and waymarked paths lead to it.