More information : (NY 6749 2217) At Castrigg photographs show two structures:
1. A Roman signal-post consisting of a platform surrounded by a circular ditch, with a single entrance. It seems to have been succeeded by:
2. A small fort, defended by a broad ditch enclosing an area about 200' square. (1-2)
Visible remains consist of a nearly ploughed out rectangular platform, situated on the crest of a slight ridge.
Surveyed at 1:2500. (3)
A signal station and native site. (4)
Identification of this site is uncertain; it might be a fortlet. Excavation is needed. (5)
The 'fortlet' encloses an area of 1.2 acres (0.5ha).
St Joseph's air photograph (authority 1) shows a plan puzzling in several respects and an associated ditch system extending to the west, which precludes its ready acceptance as a Roman military work. The double ring-ditch a possible signal station, was an upstanding earthwork in the seventeenth century, when Machell made a sketch-plan of it and of the larger enclosure. Shown as a site of uncertain nature in Farrar's distribution map. (6)
Scheduled as a Roman fortlet. (7)
A ditched enclosure, described as a fortlet by the above authorities, is centred at NY 6746 2215, and visible as an earthwork on air photographs. The north-west and north-east sides are visible as a broad ditch. Only part of the other two sides are clear enough to depict. (8)
In July 2015, Appleby Archaeology Group undertook geophysical survey across c2.4ha to investigate the site. Survey revealed the presence of a sub-rectangular enclosure, with possible entrances on three sides, at least two internal round houses of different phases, and a further phase of enclosure or annex appended to the south-east. The results have been interpreted as an Iron Age or Romano-British farmstead. No definitive evidence for the Castrigg Roman fortlet or associated signal station was identified, calling into question previous interpretations of the site. (9)
|