Daw's Castle (or ''Dart's Castle'' or ''Dane's Castle'') is a sea cliff

hillfort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

just west of Watchet, a harbour town in

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England. It is a

Scheduled Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

. The name comes from Thomas Dawe, who owned ''castell'' field in 1537. The fort is situated on an east-west cliff about above the sea, on a tapering spur of land bounded by the Washford River to the south, as it flows to the sea at Watchet, about 1 km east. The ramparts of the fort would have formed a semicircle backing on to the sheer cliffs, but

coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of Wind wave, waves, Ocean current, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts ...

has reduced the size of the enclosure, and later destruction by farming, limekilns, and the B3191 road, have left only about of ramparts visible today. The fort may be of

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

origin, but was rebuilt and fortified as a ''

burh A burh () or burg was an Anglo-Saxon fortification or fortified settlement. In the 9th century, raids and invasions by Vikings prompted Alfred the Great to develop a network of burhs and roads to use against such attackers. Some were new constru ...

'' by King Alfred, as part of his defense against

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

raids from the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel (, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales (from Pembrokeshire to the Vale of Glamorgan) and South West England (from Devon to North Somerset). It extends ...

around 878 AD. It would have been one of a chain of forts and coastal lookout posts, connected by the '' Herepath'', or ''military road'', which allowed Alfred to move his army along the coast, covering Viking movements at sea. Excavations have revealed a first phase of defence with a mortared wall fronting an earth bank from this period. Then a second phase of defence in late 9th or early 10th centuries, also against

invaders. In the

Burghal Hidage The Burghal Hidage () is an Anglo-Saxon document providing a list of over thirty fortified places (burhs), the majority being in the ancient Kingdom of Wessex, and the taxes (recorded as numbers of hides) assigned for their maintenance.Hill/ Rumb ...

of 919, nearby Watchet is attributed 513 hides, which converts to a defensive perimeter of 645 m. It is not clear whether this refers to the walls of the town, or of Daw's Castle high on the cliff above. The ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of ...

'' records a Viking raid on Watchet in 914, but they were defeated ''with great slaughter ... so that few of them came away, except those only who swam out to the ships''.''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'
902-24 AD
/ref> There was a plundering raid in 987, and another in 997, with ''much evil wrought in burning and manslaughter''.''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'

/ref> A Saxon mint was established at Watchet in 1035, and this was probably within the fort, rather than in the town below.

References

* Somerset Historic Environment Record *
Daw's Castle
(Site record 34164) *
Daw's Castle Saxon Burh
(Site record 34162) *
Daw's Castle Excavation 1982
(Site record 15181) *
Daw's Castle Saxon Mint
(Site record 34209)

See also

References

Further reading