The Castle Fort, Castlebank Plantation
The monument includes the buried and earthwork remains of the slight univallate hillfort at Castlebank Plantation. It is located on the crown of a hill, to the north-west of Castle Hill Road.
A bank and outer ditch encloses a roughly oval area orientated south east to north west, and measuring 170 metres long and 140 metres wide. The earthworks are best preserved on the north, east, south, and parts of the west side, where the bank varies between 1 metre and 2 metres high and up to 8 metres wide, and the ditch is 1 metre to 2 metres wide and up to 4 metres deep. There are indications of a further ditch to the north east and south west, which suggest that the hillfort may originally have been bivallate with two rings of defences. Where there are small areas of erosion in the bank it can be seen that the bank was constructed from earth and river washed cobbles.
In the north west of the hillfort a deep former clay-pit, now containing a pond has removed the traces of the banks and ditch, and as access drive cuts the earthworks on the south western angle. These are not included in the scheduling. Breaks in the defences to the north-east where the land slopes gently to the north suggest that this is an original entrance to the hillfort. In the south east on the external slope of the bank are the remains of deep quarry pits.
Small scale excavation and archaeological observation in advance of development undertaken in the 1980's and 1990's have indicated that archaeological remains survive within the hillfort despite the construction of the house and outbuildings.
Castle Fort, a jettied half timbered house with brick and stone was reconstructed on the hillfort having been moved from its original site in Wales. In addition, two imported timber framed barns are located within the banks at the crown of the hill. Castle Fort, the timber framed barns and all modern pats and surfaces are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath these features is included.
This hillfort forms a rarely recorded element of the Late Bronze Age and early Iron Age landscape of this area. It is well preserved with almost the entire circuit of earthworks surviving as upstanding and buried features. Despite some disturbance from the construction of the house and outbuildings, archaeological recording in advance of development in the 1980's and 1990's have indicated that archaeological remains survive within the hillfort. These will preserve evidence including buried land surfaces below the banks and other features such as storage pits or middens which will preserve artefacts and environmental deposits which will illuminate both the natural environment surrounding the monument during its occupancy, and also provide information about the diet and agricultural regimes followed by the inhabitants