Yockenthwaite Moor
English Heritage, working in conjunction with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, have recently investigated and surveyed in detail the tumbled remains of drystone-walled houses and other structures, believed to be part of a 2000-year old settlement, which lie high on Yockenthwaite Moor in Langstrothdale. Even before survey, the monument was recognised to be of national importance and had been protected by scheduling. Following survey we now have a better understanding of what the site is and how it has evolved and changed over time; we also have a far better appreciation of how fragile it is and of the threats which face it. This will enable suitable conservation and management policies to be drawn up.
The settlement occupies a natural shelf in the daleside far above the valley floor. As any hillwalker will know, at this altitude today there is almost no permanent human settlement in the Dales and the main inhabitants of the unenclosed moorland are grazing sheep. Yet a string of ruined settlement sites which line the upper slopes of Langstrothdale (including the site at Yockenthwaite Moor) point to a very different pattern of settlement, and possibly also of land-use, 2000 years ago.
The precise layout of many of these settlements is hard to work out because the walls of the drystone houses have collapsed into tumbled spreads of stone. On Yockenthwaite Moor the plan is even more difficult to interpret because the pattern of tumbled walls is further confused by stone collapsing on to the site from later mineral extraction and associated activity immediately upslope.
The final survey plan is in the process of being drawn and phased and the report written, but provisional interpretation suggests that some 2000 years ago the settlement consisted of a number of small, drystone-built, sub-circular or sub-rectangular houses and other structures situated within larger stone-walled enclosures. Several of the houses and structures are extremely well-preserved with walls still standing 1.6m high and exhibiting traces of corbelling (overlapping stones narrowing the span of the building) in their upper courses. Some of the walls also have what can only be described as small blind recesses or ‘cupboards’ built into their inner faces, although their purpose is presently unknown. The survey has been able to suggest that this degree of preservation is largely the result of the interiors of structures having been cleared of tumbled stone by amateur antiquarians, perhaps in the later nineteenth or first half of the last century, although we cannot be certain of the date. However, the interpretation of the field evidence is supported by reports of the recovery of three sherds of Romano-British pottery from the site sometime before 1948.
The full report will soon be available to order. For further information on our investigation, please contact Marcus Jecock at English Heritage's York Office on 01904 601928 (e-mail: marcus.jecock@english-heritage.org.uk), or Miles Johnson at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority on 01969 652361
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