More information : Iron Age boundary ditches are visible as earthworks on air photographs and lidar, at SD 6512 7780. The features run along a northeast-southwest alignment. The northernmost boundary ditch appears to head towards an Iron Age defended settlement (UID 43942) and shows evidence of re-use as a drainage ditch. Both boundary ditches are partially overlain by post medieval narrow ridge and furrow. The features are extant on the latest 2012 aerial photography.
(1-2)
The features were targeted for follow-on ground investigation in Stage 2 of EH's NAIS Upland Pilot Project (covering parts of the Southern Lakes, Western Dales & Arnside), and were briefly perambulated in October 2013.
Two narrow, shallow ditch features are apparent on the ground, as mapped and described from aerial photographs (authorities 1&2). Both linears are orientated NE-SW and run parallel to one another, spaced about 140m apart. The more southerly linear is traceable for over 350m and is located approximately 80m south-west of outer edge of the earthwork enclosure site of Castle Hill (UID 43942). The northernmost linear is visible from about 100m north-east of the outer edge of the Castle Hill enclosure, this ditch or gully runs along the line of a probable drain and measures approximately 1.3m wide by 0.2m deep. It terminates as a wider depression filled with reeds where its south-west end meets the outer bank of the Castle Hill enclosure, a point where the outer enclosure bank appears to have been knocked through and the ditch inside it may have been causewayed. (3)
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