Castle Hill, Folkestone

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Castle Hill, Folkestone

Castle Hill is a hill on the North Downs

North Downs

The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch for 120 miles from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent....
ridge near Folkestone

Folkestone

Folkestone is the principal town in the Shepway District of Kent, England. Its original site lay in a stream valley in the cliffs here; and its subsequent development was through fishing and its proximity to the Europe as a landing place and trading port....
with a height of 140 metres.

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Castle Hill is a hill on the North Downs

North Downs

The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch for 120 miles from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent....
ridge near Folkestone

Folkestone

Folkestone Downs

The Folkestone Downs are an area of chalk downland near Folkestone, Kent. The downs form the eartern most stretch of the North Downs escarpment are protected within the Folkestone to Etchinghill Escarpment SSSI due to their geological and biological interest....
. The portal of the Channel Tunnel

Channel Tunnel

The Channel Tunnel , also known by the portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea rail transport tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent, Kent in England with Coquelles near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover....
is at the western slope of this hill, and the tunnel passes beneath.

Castle

The summit of Castle Hill is capped by the earthworks of a motte and bailey fort sometimes referred to as Caesar's Camp. However, an excavation of the site by General Augustus Pitt Rivers in 1878 revealed no evidence of a Roman settlement ever existing on the hill but rather that the earthworks were most likely prehistoric in origin and were later considerably strengthened by the Normans in the 1140s. The excavation also found no evidence of stone structures existing on the site and it is likely that the castle was abandoned before it was able to expand. Today the motte and bailey earthworks are a scheduled ancient monument.

Encircling the summit of Castle Hill is a tank trap which was built in 1940 for defence in case of German invasion.

Nature

Castle Hill forms part of the Folkestone to Etchinghill escarpment Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest or SSSI is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon them, including National Nature Res...
(SSSI) and on its slopes can be found a variety of wildflowers and orchids. The hill and surrounding downs also provide a habitat for butterflies.

During the twentieth century much chalk

Chalk

Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. It forms under relatively deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
grassland was lost due to scrub encroachment which was caused by lack of grazing, management and the myxomatosis

Myxomatosis

Myxomatosis is a disease which affects rabbits. It is caused by the Myxoma virus. First observed in Uruguay in the late 1800s, it was deliberately introduced into Australia in 1950 in an attempt to control rabbit infestation and population there; see rabbits in Australia....
outbreak. This can be clearly seen by comparing photographs of Castle Hill 100 years ago to today. However, the Folkestone Downs are now properly managed and scrubland (and in some cases woodland) is gradually being cleared and grazed to revert back to chalk grassland.

Facts

The excavation of Castle Hill in 1878 by General Pitt Rivers was the first ever scientific excavation of a medieval site.

The summit of Castle Hill provides good views of the Folkestone Channel Tunnel Terminal.

The M20 motorway

M20 motorway

The M20 is a motorway in Kent, England. It runs from the M25 motorway to Folkestone, providing a link to the Channel Tunnel and the ports at Dover....
becomes A20 road

A20 road

The A20 is a two-digit major road in south-east England, carrying traffic from London to Dover, England in Kent. Parts of the route now followed by the modern road, particularly the first section, was opened as a Toll road in the early part of the 18th century....
at this point and skirts round the southern base of the hill before tunneling underneath neighbouring Round Hill.

Between the slopes of Castle Hill and Sugarloaf Hill is a natural hollow called Holywell where there is also evidence of prehistoric occupation.