From Warham take the sharply rising and falling lane towards
Wighton and shortly after a bridge, squeeze the car on to the left
hand verge at N52 55 927, E000 53 781. Walk up the road and take
the track on the right to uncover the romantic mystery of what
awaits, through a gate and in a large field.
Ahead on a tract of undisturbed chalk grassland, a wonder all in
itself, are ancient earthworks comprising two great rings, now
pierced, and a couple of immense ditches.
On the plain of the central enclosure there is an aged holm oak,
like some natural altar, and the whole site tips down to where it
touches a bend in the much-reduced River Stiffkey. The view over
hedged and cattle-dotted meadows, spiked with trees and Wighton and
Warham church towers, is just sublime.
When the evening mist is curling after a hot summer's day, or a
sea fret is coming in, the romantic imagination will simply
unfurl.
We're in what is known locally as the Danish Camp, suggesting a
Viking settlement before the sea receded and Stiffkey dwindled
beyond the reach of most small craft, let along longships.
In fact, this is the best-preserved Iron Age fort in East Anglia
- Pottery fragments found on Warham Camp date from 200BC to the
first century AD - making this an Iceni settlement which, in all
probability, was annihilated or abandoned after the defeat of
Boudica's revolt against Rome in AD61.
But history has snapped the original circles. We approach via an
entrance cut in the 1800s and look down to what is almost certainly
another break wrought by changes to the river course in the
1700s.
These massive ramparts were constructed from chalk to enclose an
area of around 1.5 hectares. Excavations in 1914 and 1959 revealed
that 2,000 years ago the ditches were two metres deeper than they
are today. They also found the remains of a wooden palisade and
walkway on top of the inner bank.
Please note that the cache is not hidden anywhere in the fort
area as it is a protected site of special interest; Feel free
to look around the fort once you have located the cache!