What is the name of the huge pre-Roman hill fort near Dorchester?
Dorchester, Dorset inspiration of the author Thomas Hardy, whose novel "The Mayor of Casterbridge" uses a fictionalised version of Dorchester as its setting. Dorchester's roots stem back to prehistoric times. The earliest settlements were about southwest of the modern town centre in the vicinity of Maiden Castle, a large Iron Age hill fort that was one of the most powerful settlements in pre-Roman Britain. Different tribes lived there from 4000 BC. The Durotriges were likely to have been there when the Romans arrived in Britain in 43 AD. The Romans defeated the local tribes by 70 AD and established a garrison that
Waddon Hill some small areas destroyed by the quarrying. The permanent structure of the fort appears to have been built and occupied in the period 50-60 AD, following the abandonment of Hod Hill further east. The Roman road to Waddon seems to have left the main Dorchester-Axminster road at Two Gates, passed through Eggardon Hill, then south of Beaminster, to enter Waddon from the east. Waddon Hill Waddon Hill is a hill and the site of an old Roman fort near Beaminster, in the English county of Dorset. The name "Waddon" is from the Old English meaning "wheat hill". The Wessex Ridgeway