Surviving banks and ditches from the Iron Age defences of Camulodunum, the settlement that came before Roman Colchester
Open accessfree to visit at any reasonable time
Earthworks onlybanks, ditches and platforms — read the ground, not walls
Before the Romans arrived, Colchester was already one of Britain’s most important settlements, an Iron Age capital known as Camulodunum, and its people dug a system of dykes, banks fronted by a ditch, to defend the town’s western side. Two separate stretches of that system survive, a length of bank and ditch beside Straight Road called Lexden Earthworks, and a second, wooded stretch to the south known as Bluebottle Grove. Close by, a separate mound called the Lexden Tumulus is traditionally linked to Cunobelinus, a British ruler from just before the Roman conquest, though the identification is far from certain. Colchester City Council looks after both earthworks, which are free to visit at any time and have little to see beyond the banks and ditches themselves, though Colchester Castle and Colchester Station are both a mile or so east.
