| Wimble Toot | |
| Location: | Babcary, Somerset |
| Map Type: | Somerset |
| Map Size: | 200 |
| Type: | tumulus or motte |
| Coordinates: | 51.0497°N -2.6291°W |
Wimble Toot is a burial mound or, possibly, a motte built near the village of Babcary, Somerset, England. It is a scheduled ancient monument with a list entry number of 1015279.
Toot is derived from Old English tōt, meaning a lookout point.[1]
Wimble Toot is generally interpreted as a typical bowl barrow dating to the Bronze Age,[2] between 2600 and 700 BC.[3] Today the site forms a circular earthwork, 27.47m (90.12feet) across and 2.74m (08.99feet) high, with a ditch on the north-west and south-east sides, on the top of a ridge, overlooking a brook which runs into the River Cary and the old Roman road of the Fosse Way.[4] The site is of an undetermined age, and appears to have been a part of the Romano-British landscape. In Roman times, Wimble Toot was situated at a crossroads.[1]
An alternative interpretation is that the monument is a possible motte built between 1067 and 1069.[5] According to this view, Wimble Toot was probably built by the Norman lord Robert of Mortain to protect the River Cary and the nearby settlement of Ilchester.[6]
Today the site is a scheduled monument.[7]