Broadbury Castle

Broadbury Castle stands on a gentle rise above the valley of the River Wolf in Devon. It is an earthwork made of a single bank and ditch that form a near-square enclosure. The enclosure measures about fifty-eight metres by sixty-eight metres across. Historic England recognises it as the remains of a Roman marching camp, though no firm proof exists. Another view suggests it may have been an Iron Age or Roman-British civilian settlement. The site is legally protected as a scheduled monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The earthworks have long been linked to local fox hunting traditions. Devon newspaper accounts mention the site over fifty years of hunting records. The name Broadbury Castle suggests a grander past, but only earthen banks remain today. The enclosure’s shape and size hint at military or communal use in earlier centuries. Its position on rising ground would have offered a clear view of the surrounding countryside. The ditch and bank still stand a metre or more high in places. Visitors reach the site along farm tracks and footpaths from nearby Beaworthy. The earthworks form a low, grassy rectangle that is easy to walk around. From the top of the bank there are wide views over the Devon countryside. The site is quiet and open, with no modern buildings inside the enclosure. The surrounding fields show the kind of landscape that would have been visible centuries ago. Broadbury Castle offers a quiet place to stand and imagine its past uses.