Goltho is a site than has undergone a rare extensive and detailed excavation and was found to have had a complex history. This started as a Saxon defended manorial site and had the earthworks modified on several occasions (and timber buildings rebuilt) including use as a Norman castle. The excavation of this site was utterly destructive turning what looked to be a straightforward motte and bailey into a cropmark, undetectable on the ground. However without such an intense excavation the earlier Anglo-Saxon manor and the development of the site from a Ringwork to a Motte and Bailey is unlikely to have been understood or even known. One of the most important sites in castle studies. This is Beresford's account of his excavations.
There has been some critical discussion of Beresford's dating of the phases of the site although at the 2013 Society of Medieval Archaeology conference it was stated that Beresford's original phase dating is currently accepted.