2015

SP8306 : Slopes of the Cymbeline's Castle spur

taken 9 years ago, near to Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire, England

Slopes of the Cymbeline's Castle spur
Slopes of the Cymbeline's Castle spur
A spur of land runs westwards from Beacon Hill falling away to the south as seen in this picture. The ancient earthworks and later motte and bailey remains of Cymbeline's Castle are the wooded area at the end of the spur.
See shared description below:
Cymbeline's Castle & Beacon Hill

Adjacent to Beacon Hill to the west is an ancient Motte & Bailey system known as Cymbeline's Castle (or Mount). Any connection with the ancient British king - whom Shakespeare wrote a play about - is I think speculative at best. However it has been suggested that the nearby Kimbles (Little & Great) are named after him, so it does at least have some plausible link back to pre-Roman times. Although Shakespeare used the name Cymbeline (for his entirely fictional tale), this 1st Century king who ruled a large area of Southern England before the Roman invasion, is more generally known historically as Cunobelinus, though he is known also by various other names such as Cynfelyn and Kymbelinus.
The motte and bailey(s) are overgrown with impenetrable scrub - and surrounded by barbed wire, so access to the site is unfortunately not possible, however if you scale Beacon Hill, the views down to it are very good.
Cymbeline's Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and there is an extensive and informative write up on the EH website here LinkExternal link
Beacon Hill itself looks an eminently suitable place for a hill fort, and it too is a Scheduled Ancient Monument as it is the site of a Bronze Age Bowl Barrow see LinkExternal link
Just south of the barrow is another S.A.M., A Pillow Mound LinkExternal link thought to be associated with the breeding of rabbits on the hill.


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Rob Farrow and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Geographical Context: Historic sites and artefacts Place: Ellesborough Primary Subject: View other tags: Spur Click a tag, to view other nearby images.
This photo is linked from: Automatic Clusters: · Cymbeline's Castle [8] · Slopes of Beacon Hill [8] · Westwards [2] ·
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SP8306, 73 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Rob Farrow   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Saturday, 18 April, 2015   (more nearby)
Submitted
Tuesday, 28 April, 2015
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! SP 8321 0623 [10m precision]
WGS84: 51:44.9158N 0:47.7645W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! SP 8346 0615
View Direction
West-northwest (about 292 degrees)
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Image classification(about): Geograph
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