Section of Scots Dike linear boundary south of Kirklands Farm

Reasons for Designation

Scots Dike is a linear earthwork extending for 14km from the River Swale to the River Tees in North Yorkshire. Significant sections remain visible as upstanding earthworks and indicate that the dyke system had an earthen rampart flanked on the eastern side by a ditch. Where not preserved as an upstanding monument, the dyke is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs and elswhere often survives as a low bank beneath present field boundaries. It was constructed in the post Roman period and encloses an area in the eastern foothills of the Pennines between the two rivers. This area contained wealthy arable and pastoral land as well as some of the mineral resources of the northern Pennines. Linear earthworks were used to divide territory for military, social, economic and political purposes, often using natural features such as rivers and watersheds to define an area. Scots Dike was built to consolidate territorial and economic units in response to changing political circumstances during the sixth and seventh centuries AD. These were brought about, at least in part, by the arrival of the Anglians in northern England. Fewer than 50 examples of linear earthworks of post Roman date have been identified in England. As a rare monument type of considerable importance to the study of early medieval territorial patterns, all surviving examples are identified as being of national importance. This section of Scots Dike survives well and significant archaeological remains will be preserved within and beneath the monument. It will provide information about the development of the landscape in the post Roman period.

Details

The monument is a section of the linear earthwork known as Scots Dike. The monument includes a bank and flanking ditch extending for 350m south of Kirklands Farm, and is located on a south facing slope extending down from Gatherley Moor. The bank is 10m wide and up to 1.8m high reducing in size at the southern end where it is only 0.8m high above the adjacent land. The ditch, lying to the east of the bank, is 7m wide at the northern end but reduces to 3m wide to the south. To the east of the ditch is a small counterscarp bank 2m wide at the northern end which narrows and is no longer visible as an earthwork at the southern end. The dyke continued further to the south, where its course can be identified in field boundaries and drainage ditches. Here it has been much altered by agricultural activity and is not therefore included in the scheduling. At the northern end the dyke is truncated by Kirklands Farm and its outbuildings although it continues 70m to the north where it is the subject of a separate scheduling. All modern fences, gates and walls are excluded from the scheduling although the ground beneath is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

26945

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Haselgrove, C, Rural Settlement in the Roman North in Indigenous settlement patterns in the Tyne-Tees lowlands, Vol. BAR, (1982)
Maclaughlan, , Archaeological Journal in Roman Roads Camps and Earthworks in the North Riding, Vol. VOL 6, (1849), 221-225

Other
RCHME, Scots Dyke,

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry