Desborough Castle
Iron Age hillfort in Buckinghamshire, England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Desborough Castle is an Iron Age hill fort which lies on the southern side of the valley of the River Wye in Buckinghamshire, which runs through the Chiltern Hills from The Ridgeway and Vale of Aylesbury to the river Thames.
| Desborough Castle | |
|---|---|
| Buckinghamshire, England | |
Desborough Castle (centre), seen from the air | |
| Site information | |
| Type | Hill fort and ringwork castle |
| Condition | Earthworks remain |
| Website | buckinghamshire.gov.uk |
| Location | |
  Desborough Castle Shown within Buckinghamshire | |
| Coordinates | 51.6321°N 0.7776°W |
| Grid reference | grid reference SU847933 |
| Designations | |
Details
Desborough Castle consists of a Norman ringwork, partly overlying a mound, possibly a barrow reused as a Saxon moot. Both lie within a square enclosure, possibly an Iron Age or Late Bronze Age settlement or stock enclosure.
This valley has always been an important communication route, and has had a known trackway running through since the Bronze Age. The fort lies within what is these days a landscaped grass area, just below the Castlefield council estate and looks over High Wycombe.
Listing
Desborough Castle was listed in 1933 by the Office of Works as a scheduled monument dues to its importance as an archaeological site.[1] The site suffers from frequent vandalism and fly tipping, and in 2020 Historic England added the castle to its Heritage at Risk Register due to "major localised problems".[2][3]
