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Viewing swaag.org website implies consent to set cookies on your computer. Full details Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Archaeology Group
Registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation Number 1155775
SWAAG Honorary President:
Tim Laurie F,S,A,

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 *****SWAAG_ID***** 741
 Date Entered 22/07/2013
 Updated on 23/07/2013
 Recorded by Tim Laurie
 Category Settlement
 Record Type Archaeology
 SWAAG Site Name 
 Site Type 
 Site Name 
 Site Description 
 Site Access Public Access Land
 Record Date 19/07/2013
 Location Walden Head. Walden Moor. Terrace below Crag Brea
 Civil Parish Bishopdale
 Brit. National Grid SD 990 804
 Altitude 432m
 Geology Kame terrace below the Underset Limestone.
 Record Name Walden. Round house settlement below Crag Brea with associated enclosures with well preserved wall passage feature.
 Record Description Round house settlement on kame terrace below Crag Brea with associated enclosures with well preserved wall passage feature. This settlement is well preserved in spite of the fact that a large modern sheep fold directly overlies the settlement and has been built from stone obtained from the settlement enclosure and wall passage feature walls. The wall passage feature is attached to the western side of a large stone walled enclosure and has been reduced by stone taken for the later sheepfold, however the two orthostatic wall faces are intact at and below ground level together with some of the dry stone walling. The end walls of the wall passage are masked by tumble. The best of the few hut circles is located at the western limit of the settlement enclosures, at SD9882080292,444m. Several small hut circles and a row of features which may be collapsed beehive structures are incorporated within the substantial stone enclosure walls, at SD9889580340.
 Dimensions 160m in length from SD9897980396 to SD9882080292
 Geographical area 
 Species 
 Scientific Name 
 Common / Notable Species 
 Tree and / or Stem Girth 
 Tree: Position / Form / Status 
 Tree Site ID 0
 Associated Site SWAAG ID 0
 Additional Notes This settlement together with the overlying sheep fold suggest that this terrace has been in continuous use for seasonal, transhumant sheep management and foddering for millennia. Wall passage features are generally 1.2m wide with faced dry stone walls which were most probably roofed with timbers and turf coverings. If so they could have served the purpose of cold storage for cheese or for dried and smoke cured meat products, and for protection from wolves, foxes and inclement weather. Wall passages are associated, in the Pennine Uplands with shieling settlements of late Iron Age,Native Roman and pre-Conquest date, as at Greenber Edge above Bainbridge (Blood and Cater,1996). This settlement can be seen on Google Earth. The superficially similar round house settlement also on the southern side of Walden, above Whitrow Farm some 3km to the NE and located at 400m elevation below Dove Scar is associated with an open group of three burnt mounds, see SWAAG Database Site No. The burnt mounds at Whitrow Farm may far predate the enclosures but they do indicate continuity of pastoral activity on the Pennine Fringe from the Late Neolithic onwards. References: Keith Blood and Derek Cater 1996.'Settlements at Greenber Edge'. RCHME Archaeological Survey Report on NMR nos:SD98NE1,6,201-4
 Image 1 ID 4573         Click image to enlarge
 Image 1 Description View westward towards the settlement and modern sheepfold below Crag Brea.
 Image 2 ID 4574         Click image to enlarge
 Image 2 Description The approach to the settlement
 Image 3 ID 4575         Click image to enlarge
 Image 3 Description  Round house at western limit of the settlement enclosures
 Image 4 ID 4578         Click image to enlarge
 Image 4 Description The wall passage feature and stone wall enclosure.
 Image 5 ID 4576         Click image to enlarge
 Image 5 Description The wall passage feature
 Image 6 ID 4577         Click image to enlarge
 Image 6 Description The wall passage feature
 Image 7 ID 4579         Click image to enlarge
 Image 7 Description The wall passage feature
 Image 8 ID 4580         Click image to enlarge
 Image 8 Description The wall passage feature
 Image 9 ID 4581         Click image to enlarge
 Image 9 Description Round house.
 Image 10 ID 4582         Click image to enlarge
 Image 10 Description The enclosure walls are hevily quarried close to the modern sheepfold, but can be discerned.
 Image 11 ID 4583
 Image 11 Description The settlement terrace below Crag Brea from the SE.
 Image 12 ID 4584
 Image 12 Description A small trackway and hollow way leads upto the one and only gap in Crag Brea which provides access from the western limit of the settlement up to the moorland plateau above.
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