Beech Bottom Dyke

Beech Bottom Dyke is a long earthwork near St Albans in Hertfordshire. It runs for nearly a mile along the northern edge of the city, flanked by high banks on both sides. The ditch is up to 30 metres wide and 10 metres deep in places. It follows a straight line between the Ancient Briton Crossroads on the A1081 and the Midland Main Line at Sandridge. Beyond the railway it continues but this section is not open to visitors. The dyke was built late in the Iron Age, probably between 5 and 40 AD. It may have been made by the Catuvellauni, a powerful Celtic tribe settled in the area. Their leader Cunobelinus likely ordered the work to mark land around Verlamion, the tribal centre that later became Verulamium. The dyke formed part of a larger defence with other earthworks like Devil’s Dyke and The Slad. Together they enclosed a wide area between the River Lea and the River Ver. A walk along the public section shows the scale of the earthwork. The banks rise steeply from the ditch floor, giving a sense of its original strength. The path follows the line of the dyke through open ground near the city’s edge. Visitors can see how the earthwork once protected the settlement. The remaining stretch ends just short of the B651 road near Sandridge.