Maiden Castle

Maiden Castle stands in Grinton, a village in North Yorkshire. It is an Iron Age settlement shaped like a pear and covers about seven thousand square metres. The site has a single entrance approached by an avenue, a feature found nowhere else in northern England. Archaeologists call such enclosures banjo enclosures, though the name is disputed here. Only one other banjo enclosure is known in the region, at Fremington Dykes. The name Maiden Castle probably means a fortification that looks impregnable. The only structure dated so far is a post-and-panel building. Its design matches a similar building at Healaugh, placed in the late Iron Age or Romano-British period. The site is protected as a scheduled monument. No evidence suggests it was ever taken by force. The name occurs in other parts of Britain, always pointing to a strong fort. Visitors walk over grassy banks that still outline the pear-shaped enclosure. The entrance avenue leads directly to the central area. From the top of the banks there are wide views across Swaledale. The surrounding countryside is quiet farmland and moorland. The site is easy to reach from Grinton village.