Open accessfree to visit at any reasonable time
Earthworks onlybanks, ditches and platforms — read the ground, not walls
Deddington Castle is a castle to walk over rather than look at: no stone stands, only the grassed banks and ditches of one of the largest earthwork castles in the region, ringing a field on the edge of the village. Bishop Odo of Bayeux, half-brother of William the Conqueror, raised it as the administrative centre for his Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire estates; stone defences were added later but dismantled and sold once the castle slid into disuse from the 13th century. Its one turn in the chronicles came in 1312, when the royal favourite Piers Gaveston was held here before the Earl of Warwick carried him off to his execution. The inner bailey is looked after by English Heritage and open at any reasonable time, free; the village of Deddington is a short walk west.
More at the National Heritage List entry
