CASTLE FOLDS

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Stone-built remains of a Romano-British enclosed settlement containing hut circles, reused as a Medieval shieling. Scheduled.

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(NY 649093) Castle Folds (NR) (1)

Castle Folds settlement (1,330 ft. above O.D.) on Great Asby Scar, 3 m. S.W. of the church, occupies the summit of a small flat-topped knoll. Much of the top is covered with bare limestone outcrop. The sides of the knoll itself are formed of outcrop which, while being slight on the E. and S., becomes largely precipitous on the W. and N., though of no great height. The entire knoll is surrounded for some distance by fractured limestone outcrop which can only be traversed on foot and with considerable difficulty. The work consists of the ruins of an irregular enclosure, nearly 1-1/4 acres in area, which does not quite cover the entire top of the knoll. The walls are now merely tumbled debris of stones; but in places a few orthostats are still standing, from which the walls would appear to have been about 8 ft. thick. Built against the enclosure-wall internally are traces of a number of roughly circular and oval huts, while one on the S. side about 20 yards by 6 yards is roughly rectangular in form with rounded angles. There is a gap in the S. wall which doubtless denotes the entrance, and opposite this gap externally is a very narrow passage-way through the fractured limestone; this, being the only unimpeded approach and fairly straight, is perhaps artificial.
[The term "Village Settlement" is used by R.C.H.M. for unfortified nucleations of stone huts, fields and paddocks, mostly probably Prehistoric (IA-RB) but sometimes relatively recent.] (2)

A good example of the semi-defensive type of Romano British settlement, generally well described and illustrated by the RCHM. The rectangular enclosure with protruding 'bield' on the south wall, however, is clearly a comparatively recent sheep-fold.
Surveyed at 1:10 000. (3)

Scheduled as a Romano-British defended stone hut circle settlement
and Medieval shieling. (4)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1957

( 2) Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England 1936 An inventory of the historical monuments in Westmorland

Page(s)19

( 3) Field Investigators Comments

F1 RE 13-MAY-74

( 4) General reference

English Heritage SAM Amendment 9.11.93

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