Heddoburg

The Heddoburg was an East Frisian chieftain’s stronghold in Sengwarden, now part of Wilhelmshaven in Lower Saxony. It stood on a low artificial mound called a Gehöftwurt, raised about two and a half metres above the surrounding land. The oval mound measures roughly seventy-five by fifty metres, surrounded by two concentric ditches with a five-to-seven-metre-wide rampart between them. A single farmhouse and a barn occupy the site today, the barn dating from the sixteenth century and the house from the seventeenth. The chieftain Hedde Tiarks is said to have built a stone hall on the mound around 1285. His son Hillert Hedden, born about 1320, became a judge in Östringen and owned both the Heddoburg and the nearby Putzwei castle. Written records of the stronghold are scarce, but place names and later farm buildings preserve traces of its past. Visitors reach the farm on a quiet lane in Sengwarden. The old barn and house stand close together on the raised mound, giving a sense of the site’s original height. The surrounding ditches and rampart are still visible, marking the outline of the vanished stronghold. From the lane a low bank curves away, showing where the outer ditch once ran. The farm itself is private, but the mound and defences can be viewed from the track.