Stonea Camp

Stonea Camp stands on a gravel bank in the Cambridgeshire Fens near Wimblington. It is an Iron Age hill fort only two metres above sea level, the lowest in Britain. Around 500 BC the fort began as a D-shaped enclosure of earth banks and ditches. Later a larger outer set of defences was added over several centuries. When first built, the site offered dry ground surrounded by flooded marshland. The fort may have been the scene of a Roman battle in 47 AD. Tacitus mentions a clash there between the Iceni and a Roman auxiliary force led by Ostorius Scapula. After Boudicca’s revolt, further fighting is thought to have taken place at Stonea. Excavations have uncovered sword-marked bones and the fractured skull of a child, signs of violent attack. A tall Roman tower once stood just north of the fort, possibly to control the area. Visitors today see grassy banks and ditches marking the two phases of construction. Restoration work in the 1990s recovered the outer defences, now protected as a scheduled ancient monument. The site is managed as a pocket park to prevent further damage by farming. A multi-storey Roman tower once rose nearby, its remains now buried beneath the soil. The flat fenland stretches away in every direction, giving a sense of how the fort once stood above the marshes.