Old Sarum

Appearing in the earliest records in England, Old Sarum is a highly important British monument, the site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury located on a hill about 2 miles (3 km) north of the modern city. Originally an Iron Age hillfort erected around 400 BC on the intersection of trade paths, the Saxons then the Normans occupied and developed it with a motte-and-bailey castle, a stone curtain wall, and a great cathedral. A royal palace was built for King Henry I. In the early 13th century, the buildings of Old Sarum were dismantled for stone but the footprints can still be seen today.