England · Partial ruin
Merdon Castle
Merdon Castle is the remains of a 12th-century motte-and-bailey castle built within the earthwork ramparts of an earlier hillfort on a south-facing chalk spur near Hursley, Hampshire. Today the site survives as earthworks, a motte and bailey footprint, buried foundations and the location of a former flint-and-stone tower, managed as a scheduled monument on private land.
Its prime
1140
Today
Partial ruin
As it stood in 1140
The shape it held in its prime.
Sited on a prominent south-facing chalk spur within older hillfort earthworks, the castle plan centres on an oval motte rising roughly 5 m above the interior and up to 12 m above the outer ditch, with a semicircular bailey to the south. A single encircling earthen rampart and outer ditch define the site, strengthened at the spur’s neck by a small counterscarp bank. A two-storey flint-and-stone tower occupies a gap in the northern rampart and a flint-lined well sits on the motte; ranges of walls and buildings fill the inner ward.
Its story
The story of Merdon Castle.
Merdon Castle is a 12th-century motte-and-bailey built inside the ramparts of a much older hillfort, on a prominent south-facing chalk spur near Hursley in Hampshire. The castle re-used the hillfort's rampart and outer ditch to enclose an oval motte and a semicircular bailey to the south; the motte rises up to five metres above the interior and twelve above the ditch, and carries a flint-lined well and the site of a two-storey flint and stone tower.
The small hillfort's interior held timber or stone roundhouses, storage pits, hearths and raised granaries indicated by postholes, and a 1994 geophysical survey detected buried foundations of walls and buildings, mainly within the inner ward. The site survives as earthworks, a scheduled monument on private land.
Step inside
9 places to explore in 1140.
The record describes 9 distinct spots at Merdon Castle — including 1 interior: timber or stone roundhouse (interior). Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more photos, more angles and more rooms of the immersive experience.
Create History
Recreate Merdon Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1140 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
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