More information : [SX 9198 9330] Site of Dane's Castle (NAT) (1)
Dane's Castle. A circular mount about 150ft in diameter, with a cavity in the top and traces of a surrounding ditch, formerly stood in a field to the north of Exeter and opposite the castle, behind the county gaol; but it was destroyed for the construction of a reservoir.(2)
Danes Castle, a 12th century ringwork was revealed by archaeological excavations in 1993 on the removal of an overlying embankment which revetted a 19th century reservoir. The ringwork lies on ground sloping downwards from north to south. It consists of a steep sided circular ditch averaging 8m in width and 3.8m deep, with an external diameter of about 55m. The material from the ditch was cast into the interior to create a rampart of about 17m diameter. It appears that the face of the rampart and the inner side of the ditch formed a continuous slope with an angle of 45-50 degrees. There is an entrance in the south west sector of the ringwork consisting of a causeway formed by an uncut section of the ditch leading to a passage through the rampart. The ground surface inside the ramparts was not artificially raised.
It is thought that the ringwork was constucted in the 12th century during the reign of King Stephen (1135-54). From documentary evidence it is known that Stephen besieged the Earl of Devon, Baldwin de Redvers, in Rougemont Castle for some three months in 1136, and although there is no reference to the building of a castle, it would appear that the ringwork was constructed as a temporary campaign fortification at that time.
During the Civil War (1642-46), the earthwork appears to have been utilised by the Parliamentarian forces of the New Model Army under the command of General Fairfax during their siege of the city in 1645-6. It is subsequently referred to on some maps as Fairfax's Entrenchment. The name Danes Castle (Deanes Cassell) was first documented in 1699 and commonly used for the site from the C18th. (3)
Listed by Cathcart King. (4)
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