Wandlebury

Stapleford, Cambridgeshire

NGRef: TL493533 OSMap: LR154 Sitetype: IAf

Possible Icenian Border Fort

This circular hillfort is defended by two ramparts and ditches with a counterscarp bank enclosing an area of 6ha; a single entrance was on the south-east. Excavation has suggested two main building phases:

1. Initial development phase which has been dated by pottery finds to sometime during 5th/4th centuries BC.
2. Large-scale refortification of the defences was undertaken during the late-first century BC or possibly the early-first century AD, perhaps in response to the militaristic expansion of the neighbouring Catuvellauni tribe.

The fort lies only two miles north-west of the junction between the Icknield Ridgeway and the Via Devana Roman road, the latter route passing within a few hundred yards to the north-east of the fort on its way to the ancient ford over the Granta/Cam at Cambridge.

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