More information : An Iron Age field system is visible as earthworks on air photographs and lidar, at SD 6488 7803. The field system consists of irregular embanked field boundaries, a lynchet and a small embanked rectilinear enclosure. The features abut an Iron Age defended enclosure (UID 43942) and appear to be contemporary. Later prehistoric clearance cairns are also visible. The majority of the features are extant on the latest 2012 oblique photography, though a modern plantation masks the enclosure and some field boundaries from view. (1-2)
The site was targeted for follow-on ground investigation in Stage 2 of English Heritage's NAIS Upland Pilot Project (covering parts of the Southern Lakes, Western Dales & Arnside), and was briefly perambulated.
The field system occupies a flattish terrace and the gentle north-west facing upper slopes of the south side of the valley of Leck Beck, immediately below the prehistoric ditched enclosure of Castle Hill (UID 43942), and comprises a combination of stony scarps and grassed-over banks up to circa 1m high. There is no firm evidence of an association between the field system and the Castle Hill enclosure, and contra authority 1-2, it is quite possible that the field system is in fact earlier. In the east, the system, including authority 1-2's embanked rectilinear enclosure, lies within modern coniferous plantation, but the western part is an area of unimproved pasture and in consequence is better preserved and more visible. It is conceivable that the field system may once have continued further to the west along the natural terrace, but the land here has been visibly improved with narrow ridge-and-furrow ploughing (UID 1574888) and no surface trace was seen. The alleged cairns are natural rock outcrops. (3) |