En un regard
Le château en bref
Daw's Castle is the site of an Anglo-Saxon burh, a fortified refuge built on a clifftop about 80 m above Warren Bay, 1 km west of the port of Watchet, facing the Severn Estuary. From here the view takes in the Brendon Hills, Exmoor and the Quantock Hills. The site formed part of the network of strongholds set up in Wessex to counter Viking raids.
Excavations by Pearce (1978) and McAvoy (1982) assign the first phase of defences to the reign of Alfred the Great (871-899): a low mortared wall in front of an earth bank. In the 10th century this wall was replaced by one 1.4 m thick and at least 3.5 m high, fronted by a berm and a narrow ditch. The Burghal Hidage (c. 914) assesses Watchet at 513 hides, equivalent to a defended perimeter of about 645 m, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records failed Scandinavian attacks in 914. A mint struck coins here, mainly of Æthelred II, from around 980. The fort appears to have been abandoned after the Conquest, the mint being re-established in the present town.
What remains today is a curving bank about 180 m long enclosing nearly 2 ha; cliff erosion has carried away part of the northern side. Nineteenth-century lime kilns, listed at Grade II, occupy the north-east corner. Their construction uncovered burials dated to around the 5th century. In the guardianship of the State, the site is managed by English Heritage and is free to visit.
