More information : Rectangular enclosure with multiple ramparts at/near Hawdon Wood House. (1)
NU 08471535
The earthwork is situated on a southern slope in a pasture field.
Although badly mutilated it appears to have been a double ditched enclosure, with slightly inner rampart and an external annex with
bank and ditch on the west side.
The ditches have an average width of 10.0m and vary in depth from 0.5m to 1.2m. The inner rampart has a maximum height of 0.5m. Stones are visible in some of the banks. No trace of internal occupation. The poor defensive situation suggests that it was for pastoral purposes and probably native in origin.
The spring in the centre of the enclosure is possibly of later date.
The nearest other water suply is Shawdon Burn, approx 200.0m to the south. (2)
Listed under rectilinear sites, but unclassified. (3)
The work prior to ploughing and mutilation appears to have been
substantial, and an IA origin seems likely. Some parallels can be drawn with the hill-slope type of enclosure viz proportions and
situation, although locally these are normally of simple uinivallate form. Surveyed at 1:2500. (4)
An Iron Age fort or enclosed settlement, centred at NU 0847 1536, is visible as an earthwork on air photographs. This feature is situated on a south-facing slope in a pasture field near Shawdonwood House. It has been badly mutilated and post Medieval ridge and furrow is visible over the site in vertical photographs from 1946. It appears to have been a double ditched enclosure (where the ditches are closely spaced), with slight internal rampart, and an annexe on its west side. Externally it measures 100m west/east by 90m north/south. The ditches are between 3m and 5m wide (though much levelled in places), and the inner bank measures 3.6m wide. It is possible that an entrance is situated to the south (where the inner and outer ditches join to form a 'hairpin' bend). The enclosed area (within the inner-most rampart) is sub-circular and measures roughly 0.25ha (to its external limits it is 0.77ha).
(5)
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