Edburton Castle Ring

Edburton Castle Ring stands on Edburton Hill in the South Downs near the villages of Edburton and Fulking in West Sussex. It is an ancient motte-and-bailey castle built soon after the Normans arrived in 1066. The site survives today as earthworks rather than stone walls. The central mound, or motte, measures about thirty metres across and rises two metres high. A ditch surrounds the motte, roughly six metres wide. A shallow dip in the centre marks where 19th-century diggers mistook the site for a burial barrow. The bailey lies to the north of the motte, enclosed by a low bank up to 1.2 metres high. The bank spreads up to fourteen metres wide and is bordered by another ditch about six metres across. These earthworks show how the Normans organised their defences and living space. The whole monument is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, recognising its importance. Visitors reach the site by walking up Edburton Hill from the nearby villages. The flat top of the motte offers wide views across the South Downs. The surrounding ditches and banks still shape the landscape after nearly a thousand years. The site is quiet and open, with few modern intrusions. It provides a clear picture of early Norman military building methods. The earthworks remain the main feature, silent witnesses to the past.