Castle Mound

Castle Mound is a steep, grassy earthwork that rises thirty-three feet above the surrounding city streets. It serves as the highest point in Cambridge and is the only major remnant of a defensive structure established here in the late eleventh century. William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a castle on this site in ten sixty-eight, following his northern campaign to capture York. To clear the space for the original motte-and-bailey design, twenty-seven houses were demolished.