Prestonbury & Cranbrook Castle

DTM- (Digital Terrain Model, i.e. No buildings or foliage) A Kilometre to the east of the National Trust’s Castle Drogo in Devon lies two opposing hillforts, Cranbrook Castle & Prestonbury castle. Cranbrook Castle is a multivallate contour hillfort to the southwest of Prestonbury Castle and is regarded as the best stone-built hillfort in Devon. 1st small excavation in 1900 found evidence of hut circles. Subsequent surveys in 1972 & 79’ found circa 30 clearance cairns in the interior. There are arguments of it’s construction phases but until a proper investigation is undertaken the site is currently undated but it’s morphology suggests Iron Age. The partial contour hillfort, Prestonbury castle lies to the northeast of Cranbrook Castle. Degraded by ploughing & minor quarrying, this site has had minimal investigations which is why it has now been listed on Britain’s Heritage at Risk Register. Site investigations in 1972 & 2013 but no excavations, hence undated. Iron Age tribal association (conjecture based on location): Dumnonii (Scheduled Monument) [Any descriptive text is attributed to the Atlas of Hillforts & Wikipedia websites and any associated archaeological descriptions online which will be credited accordingly.]