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SETTLEMENT REMAINS

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Medieval and later earthworks at Maiden Castle (SY 68 NE 7). RCHME survey in 1984-5 noted the following: (i) what appears to be a small deserted settlement just outside the ramparts to the north. Five building sites were identified, the three middle ones being the most regular, with traces of property boundaries surviving on their southern sides. The three central elements may be related to or may have been altered when the area served as a rifle range during the mid-19th century. This settlement is probably associated with the lynchet at the north foot of the hill, which at its western end changes direction abruptly to avoid the remains. Air photographs show the lynchet continuing eastward as a soil mark as far as the present Dorchester-Weymouth road. Set back on the southern side of the lynchet are two chalk pits of comparatively recent date. Maps of 1757 show no trace of the settlement, though a track following the line of the lynchet is marked. Cultivation within the hillfort covered the whole of the interior, with rig aligned east-west to the north of the bank barrow (SY 68 NE 90) and north-south to the south of it, suggesting that the barrow had served as a headland. Finally, during Wheeler's excavations in the 1930s, traces of a 16th century brick and timber barn were encountered at the hillfort's east entrance.

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