More information : A sub-circular enclosure of nearly two acres on a flat topped spur in Castlefield, Leck (plotted from site map at SD 650779), consisting of a ditch and external bank, with causeways on the south and northwest sides. Within is a 60' diameter enclosure on the eastern side, with a disturbed area on the western side which "may" indicate habitation sites. Collingwood (1a) considered the earthwork to be "a ramparted British village site, with hut circles", but it could just as well be a cattle enclosure with the ditch used for watering stock. (1)
(APs show a ditched enclosure with earth thrown up on both sides of the ditch. The interior is an area of disturbed earth, and the internal features mentioned by Lowndes and Collingwood cannot be identified. Probably an IA defended settlement; unlikely to be medieval). (2)
SD 6502 7794. An enclosed settlement consisting, originally, of inner bank with accompanying outer ditch and counterscarp bank. The inner bank has been extensively robbed - doubtless for local wall construction - but the original course can be clearly traced. The site is situated at some 210m OD on a south-west facing slope and occupies about 2 acres; there is an abundant water supply from the adjacent Leck Beck. Three depressions can be identified within the enclosed area: two appear to be hut sites, the central one a pond. There are entrances on the north and south, both causewayed, with slight inturning. In size, construction, topographical situation and general appearance the work has an obvious parallel with Yarlsber Camp (SD 77 SW 3).
Surveyed on 1:2500 MSDs. (3)
Listed as a curvilinear enclosure (Iron Age) by Challis and Harding, who add the comment `possible hill slope fort'. (4)
SD 651 777. Castle Hill prehistoric defended enclosure. Scheduled RSM No 23769. (5)
An Iron Age defended enclosure is visible as an earthwork on air photographs and lidar. The feature consists of a ditched enclosure with internal and external banks, with entrances located to the north and south. Two further embanked curving arms create an annexe on the north-western side. A number of features are visible within the enclosure including at least two hut circles and a pond. A circuit of bank within the larger enclosure may from the original extent of the settlement. The feature is extant on the latest 2012 photography. An associated field system (UID 6512) and boundary ditches (UID 1574634) are recorded separately.
(6-7)
The enclosure was targeted for follow-on ground investigation in Stage 2 of EH's NAIS Upland Pilot Project (covering parts of the Lakes, Dales & Arnside), and was briefly perambulated.
The enclosure is much as described by previous authorities, comprising a sub-circular ditch circa 100m in diameter with internal and external banks. The ditch is circa 1.5m deep in the south-west quadrant, but shallower elsewhere, while the outer bank is higher than the inner, again up to 1.5m high externally in the west where it overlies the natural slope. There are entrances in the south and north-west, the former seemingly original, the latter associated with possible hornworks (authority 6-7's 'north-western annexe') and therefore probably original, too. Authority 6-7's suggestion that there is an additional circuit of bank within the larger enclosure, which seems to have been previously unnoticed, is good. The feature measures circa 2.5-4.5m across but stands only a few decimetres high. It is best preserved in the south and west where it is set back a few metres from the bank that follows the inside of the ditch, but in the north it seems to abut the inner face of that feature; it survives only intermittently in the north-east quadrant. There are gaps through it opposite both entrances. Although its relationship to the main earthworks is uncertain, its off-centre positioning does indeed suggest it may be earlier. Other internal features mentioned by previous authorities are difficult to interpret satisfactorily, but it is clear that the site has suffered from later disturbance: a furlong of narrow ridge-and-furrow ploughing has clipped the base of the outer bank in the west, while in the south-east and east the 0.3m-wide foundations of a stone wall that follows the edge of the outer bank before turning sharply north-east and running up to the base of the modern field wall, hints at further planned land improvement and field division that was never completed.
The enclosure's position does not seem to have been chosen with defence particularly in mind: it is set back somewhat from the steeper part of the valley side of the Leck Beck to the north and the hillside continues to rise slightly behind it to the east. But the location does command impressive views westward. The presence of an external bank also seems to negate the idea of this being a defended site. At present it it is difficult to classify or date satisfactorily, other than to say it is probably a prehistoric settlement. In addition to Yarlsber Camp near Ingleton to the west, two other similarly sized earthwork enclosures exist within a few kilometres to the south (UIDs 44013 and 44014). None is as yet excavated or dated, however.
No survey action. (8)
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