Bunkenburg

About

Bunkenburg was a castle built during the 13th and 14th centuries in the shape of a circular fort located on the banks of the Aller opposite Ahlden in north Germany. Only a section of the rampart, roughly 60 metres long and 3 metres high, exists today. The name of the castle is probably derived from the material, bog iron, used for its construction and known in common parlance as Bunke.

The castle lay on the northern river bank of the Aller on a flat elevation by an important medieval crossing. The river has changed its course over the centuries becoming the River Leine and today forms the branch known as the Old Leine (Altarm Alte Leine). Opposite the site of the old castle on the other side of the river is Ahlden House (Schloss Ahlden) and the village of Ahlden. The fortification was built in the glacial valley of the Aller. Since the 1980s it has been bisected by a state road.

The castle site consists of an oval rampart, about 150 metres across. Today just a section of it remains, about 60 metres long, 20 metres wide and 3 metres high. It is covered with tall trees and lies north of the road. The rampart is likely to have originally been a wood...