Right ahead is a big grassy hill rising out of a neatly kept lawn, like someone plunked a mini-mountain in the middle of Cambridge. It’s hard to miss-just beyond that hedge.
Welcome to Castle Hill, one of Cambridge’s oldest hangouts. About 2,000 years ago there were no colleges, no bikes, no cafés-just trees and open ground, and a few Romans scouting for a smart spot to settle. They picked this hill and called their village Duroliponte. Sounds like a spell from a wizarding exam, doesn’t it? The location was perfect: right by the river, great for crossing the water and for spotting trouble before it arrived.
Later, in the Anglo-Saxon period, the hill became a fortress-a safe place locals could retreat to when things turned nasty. Then the Normans showed up, building castles the way we build sandwiches. In 1068, a huge castle went up here. The castle’s gone now, but the hill remains: “the mound.” And if you spot a red tile in St Peter’s Church up ahead, that’s a Roman leftover-ancient Cambridge, already collecting souvenirs.
