Pontefract Castle

Unearthing the medieval gatehouse at one of England’s strongest fortresses

Meet the Team

Meet everyone who took part in the dig

Watch Online

Get daily updates from the excavation team

Browse the Dig Records

All our dig data is available open access - for free!

Dig Timeline

Catch up on all the action from site, as it happens

Aug 21 2020 - 3:00 PM

End of dig video

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What an achievement! After three weeks of solid digging, Chris, Indie and David have finally reached the bottom of the medieval drawbridge pit at Pontefract Castle.

So how deep does it go? What challenges did we face? And which bizarre discovery has left Chris scratching his head?

Watch our end of dig video to find out…

Aug 15 2020 - 11:00 AM

Dig…COMPLETED!

Thats it! Our excavation at Pontefract Castle is now officially finished and the team have packed up to head home. Its been an incredible 3 weeks digging in the drawbridge pit and our excavation has come up with some great results. Stay tuned next week for all the details of what we discovered and the depth we got to. For now, I leave you with a photo of a very small looking Chris down a very deep hole in the ground!

Aug 14 2020 - 3:00 PM

Virtual Site Tour!

Why not join us for our second virtual tour of our dig at Pontefract Castle’s drawbridge pit where the team will be updating you on what they have discovered this week! At a depth of beyond 7 metres, this is turning into one incredible hole in the ground. Take a look to see what we have found out this week!

Aug 13 2020 - 9:00 AM

Green Glaze Pottery!

We’ve come across quite a few pieces of medieval green glazed pottery now. It shows we are definitely hot on the heels of the people who might have seen the drawbridge in action and perhaps looked down to the original depth of the pit we are digging now!

Aug 11 2020 - 1:00 PM

Roof Tile!

The finds are still coming down in the depths of the drawbridge pit and we’ve just come up with this big old chunk of ceramic roof tile! How did that get all the way down there?!