Iron Age hill fort at Desborough Castle

Desborough Castle, situated in Buckinghamshire, is an Iron Age hill fort. Lying on the southern side of the valley of the River Wye, it consists of a Norman ringwork overlying a mound, possibly a barrow reused as a Saxon moot. These features lie within a square enclosure, which may have been an Iron Age or Late Bronze Age settlement or stock enclosure.

The valley has always been an important communication route, with a known trackway running through it since the Bronze Age. Today, the castle is situated within a landscaped grass area just below the Castlefield council estate, overlooking High Wycombe.

Desborough Castle was listed in 1933 by the Office of Works as a scheduled monument due to its importance as an archaeological site. The site suffers from frequent vandalism and fly tipping. In 2020, Historic England added the castle to its Heritage at Risk Register due to "major localised problems".

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons