Old Sarum
Local highlightA vast ring of grassy earthworks north of Salisbury, an Iron Age hillfort that became a Norman castle and cathedral before the town moved downhill
Open to visitorsan English Heritage site — check opening times and admission before you go
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
Old Sarum today is mostly shape: huge banks and ditches on a bare chalk hilltop, best read by walking their rings. It began as an Iron Age hillfort (a defended hill enclosed by earth ramparts), then served the Romans and Saxons in turn, and after the Conquest the Normans made it a place of real weight: a royal castle raised on the inner mound, and one of the first great cathedrals in the country built inside the outer ring, the foundations of which are still marked out in the turf. The problem was the hilltop itself, cramped, windswept and short of water, and in the early 1200s the bishop moved his cathedral down to the meadows below, founding the city of Salisbury (New Sarum) around it. The old town on the hill withered away. For centuries afterwards it lived on as a notorious rotten borough, a place with almost no residents that still sent members to Parliament, until the Reform Act of 1832 swept it away. English Heritage looks after the earthworks today, and you can wander the ramparts for the wide view over the valley. It is a short drive north of Salisbury, close to Stratford-sub-Castle and the Monarch’s Way, with the Iron Age ring of Figsbury Ring and the great house at Wilton not far off.
More at the National Heritage List entry
