Site Name: Cropmark Hillfort, Castleman's Hill
Comprises:
PRN 16419 Earthwork Survey (2002), Castleman's Hill, Trull
Civil Parish: Trull
Grid Ref: ST 188 223 (ST 12 SE)

Aerial photographs show clearly two large ditches cutting off the promontory of Castleman's Hill. The centre of the hillfort is occupied by the present farm. {1}

This enclosure has a mximum elevation of 65m O.D. and is positioned on a short promentorynear the end of a west facing scarpand lies about 30m above the floor of the adjacent stream valley. It occupies the southern part of an arable field, at the north end of which the boundaries of Trull, Bradford on Tone and Bishops Hull parishes meet. The western and southern sides of the enclosure are defined by artifical scarps which encroach on the steep slope of the hillside. The northern side consists of two cropmark ditches which cross an area of undulating plateau with a gentle westerly slope. The south-western part of the enclosure is occupied by the present farm and appears to have been completely detroyed. 

The enclosure lies 1.5km south west of the River Tone and overlooks the river valley between Bradford and Wellington. Its location provides a view which extends from the Blackdown escarpment to the quantocks and includes much of the Vale of Taunton, the Devon borderlands west of Wellington and the southern slopes of the Brendons. 

See PRN 16419 for an earthwork survey of the fort. This fort shares some similar features with that discovered in West Wood (PRN 54484) {2}


References:
1 Aerial photographs - DAP QZ14 (1990) in HER
2 Detailed records - Norman C Castleman's Hill, Trull Unpublished report (2002): Report in HER files (PRN 16419)

Data kindly supplied by the Somerset Historic Environment Record.
Record created on 06 December 2001
© Copyright Somerset County Council 2007

Recommended books on hill forts;
Danebury Hillfort ~ Barry Cunliffe
Hillforts of England and Wales ~ James Dyer
Cadbury Castle - The Hillfort and Landscapes ~ Richard Tabor
The Wessex Hillfort Project ~ Andrew Payne, Mark Corney and Barry Cunliffe
Hillforts: Prehistoric Strongholds of Northumberland National Park ~ Stewart Ainsworth and Trevor Pearson
Celtic Fortifications ~ Ian Ralston