Cadbury Castle, near Sparkford, in South Somerset. A tremendous Iron Age hill fort.

Cadbury Castle, one of the most impressive hill forts in Britain, is just south of the A303 only a couple of miles from Sparkford.  I followed the signs from Sparkford to South Cadbury where the Castle looms above the village from which it takes its name.  A short distance past the church is a small car park for the use of those visiting the Castle; it is only a few yards from the steep and stony, tree lined lane up to the fortress.

Cadbury Castle an Iron Age hill fort, near Sparkford, in South Somerset.  This view was taken from the north.

Climbing the steep track through the defences of this impressive Iron Age hill fort is well worth the effort as the views are magnificent.  At the 502ft high summit is a monumental stone pointing out geographical features and the distances to them. 

To the north-west is Glastonbury Tor with the Mendip Hills and Brent Knoll beyond while to the south-west is Ham Hill and its war memorial.  Alfred’s Tower is 10 miles to the north-east on the Somerset side of the border with Wiltshire.

The view to the south west from the summit of Cadbury Castle.

Pevsner describes Cadbury Castle as: “A tremendous Iron Age Camp covering 18 acres.  It is the mightiest prehistoric camp in Somerset, and one of the mightiest in Britain.  The fortress is three-sided, guarded by no less than four huge banks and ditches.  In places the height of the bank is over 40ft above the bottom of the ditch.” 

Arthur Mee in his The King’s England, Somerset (Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1927) writes: “To the south its grassy slope is gentle, but to the north are ditches and ramparts strengthened with stone walls, now half-buried and overgrown with trees and bushes.”

A section of Cadbury Castle's defensive banks and ditches.

Cadbury Castle is also a candidate, among many, to be King Arthur’s fabled Camelot. Amongst the evidence is Arthur’s Well on the eastern side of the fortress.  King Arthur’s Hunting Causeway, still in use as a bridle path in the early twentieth century, links the Castle to Glastonbury Tor which many believe to be the Isle of Avalon.  The significantly named River Cam, a tributary of the Yeo, flows nearby.  Sally Jones in her Legends of Somerset, (Bossiney Books, 1984) states: “In one legend Cadbury is hollow and King Arthur and his Knights sleep in the great cavern, waiting for the day when they will awake and save England.”  With conflict spreading around the world that day might not be far off!