Summary
A very large prehistoric promontory fort surviving as upstanding earthworks and buried deposits including a box rampart considered to date to the early/middle Iron Age (around 500-400BC) excavated in 1969-1970, the whole monument surveyed by English Heritage in 2001.
Reasons for Designation
Roulston Scar Iron Age Promontory Fort is Scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Period: as one of the largest promontory forts dating to the Iron Age known nationally. Together with other nearby monuments, such as Boltby Scar fort and the Cleeve Dyke System, it provides an understanding of the social and economic use of the landscape and its development through the prehistoric period;
* Potential: the monument includes significant archaeological deposits in the form of substantial upstanding earthworks and areas of buried remains, including large infilled ditches;
* Documentation: understanding of the monument is enhanced by the excavations in 1969-1970 and the archaeological survey carried out in 2001.
History
Promontory forts are a type of hillfort in which conspicuous, naturally-defended sites are adapted as enclosures by the construction of one or more earth or stone ramparts placed across the neck of a spur in order to divide it from the surrounding land. Coastal situations, using headlands defined by steep natural cliffs, are common while inland similar topographic settings defined by natural cliffs are also used. The ramparts and accompanying ditches formed the main artificial defence, but timber palisades may have been erected along the cliff edges. Access to the interior was generally provided by an entrance through the ramparts. The interior of the fort was typically used intensively for settlement and related activities, and evidence for timber- and stone- walled round houses can be expected, together with the remains of buildings used for storage and enclosures for animals. Promontory forts are generally Iron Age in date, most having been constructed and used between the sixth century BC and the mid-first century AD. They are broadly contemporary with other types of hillfort. They are regarded as settlements of high status, probably occupied on a permanent basis, and recent interpretations suggest that their construction and choice of location had as much to do with prestige display as defence. Promontory forts are rare nationally with less than 100 recorded examples. In view of their rarity and their importance in the understanding of the nature of social organisation in the later prehistoric period, all examples with surviving archaeological remains are considered nationally important.
Roulston Scar is the largest of a series of promontory forts located along the west and north edges of the Hambleton Hills, in fact it is one of the largest promontory forts nationally. These forts were local foci and provide evidence of the consolidation of settlement and social organisation in the late prehistoric period. As such they can be contrasted with the more dispersed hut circle settlements also found on the North York Moors and which are of a broadly contemporary date. Roulston Scar fort may have controlled one of the main transhumance routes up on to the Hambleton Hills from the Vale of York, its large interior possibly used for the management of livestock. It is also speculated that the large, impressive scale of the fort was a mark of local prestige, the fort possibly sited on a boundary between the late Iron Age tribes known as the Parisi and Brigantes. This fort along with one other at Bolton Scar 4km to the north are also associated with an Iron Age boundary system known as the Cleave Dyke which divided the landscape into discrete blocks of land. It is possible that the northern rampart of Roulston fort may also have functioned as such a boundary division as it is on a similar alignment to an earthwork of the Cleave Dyke system (Casten Dyke South) that extends to the east. However, these two monuments were not necessarily constructed at the same time, indeed there is evidence to indicate that the promontory fort pre-dates the Cleave Dyke system. The two barrows, human burial mounds, sited in the south-eastern part of the monument, most likely pre-date the construction of the fort, being early Bronze Age round barrows, although the smaller of the two may be an Iron Age square barrow, a style of burial monument that was constructed by the Parisi, the tribe that is likely to have constructed the fort.
Although the northern rampart was identified as a prehistoric earthwork in the C19, the monument appears to have only been recognised in print as a hillfort as late as 1960 when it was included in Nicholas Thomas’s ‘Guide to Prehistoric England’. However the cutting of the Kilburn White Horse immediately adjacent in 1857, inspired by the Uffington White Horse which is also closely associated with a hillfort, suggests that the existence of the hillfort was recognised locally in the mid-C19. In the 1960s about two thirds of the interior of the hillfort, along with the western half of the northern rampart was levelled and reseeded with grass to improve its use by the gliding club which had been established on the plateau above Roulston Scar in the 1930s. A remaining section of the northern rampart was then investigated by archaeological excavation by Tony Pacitto in 1969-1970, in advance of building work for the gliding club. Pacitto concluded that the earthwork represented an early/middle Iron Age ‘box rampart’ probably dated to around 500-400 BC. The monument was added to the Schedule in 1997 and was subsequently, in 2001, the subject of a detailed archaeological survey by Historic England (then English Heritage).
Details
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: the monument includes a very large prehistoric promontory fort at Roulston Scar, surviving as upstanding earthworks and buried archaeological deposits. The monument also includes the low earthworks of at least two barrows (prehistoric burial mounds).
DESCRIPTION: the monument occupies a natural promontory on the western edge of an extensive limestone plateau that forms part of the Hambleton Hills. This promontory is defined on the west side by a sheer cliff face (Roulston Scar), to the south by a very steep slope (into which the Kilburn White Horse is cut) and to the east by the top edge of a steeply incised gill (Boar’s Gill). The neck of the promontory, to the north, is less than 200m across.
Archaeological survey has shown that the fort’s most substantial defences were those crossing the neck of the promontory on the north side, but that defences continued for just over 2km forming an almost complete circuit enclosing nearly 25ha. Two possible entrances have been identified, one being a central gap in the rampart crossing the neck of the promontory, the other being to the south east corner where the ramparts, following the contours around a natural gully, forms a U-shaped re-entrant to the fort. This gully contains a series of deeply eroded trackways in addition to the modern road that rises up onto the plateau from the south. If this was indeed an original entry point, it would have been overlooked by the flanking ramparts, these effectively forming hornworks similar to those protecting entrances to other Iron Age hillforts.
Evidence from archaeological excavation indicates that the defences crossing the neck of the promontory consisted of a box rampart (an earth infilled timber construction) which would have presented an external face standing up to 4m high, probably originally topped by a walkway protected by a timber palisade. To the north of this there was a 2m deep, 5m wide ditch with a low counterscarp bank on its north side; the whole set of defences, including earth revetting to the rear of the box rampart, measuring about 20m across. Although some 190m of this earthwork across the neck of the plateau was levelled in the 1960s, it can still be traced as a slight earthwork and crop mark, the far west end still surviving as a substantial upstanding earthwork. The infilled bottom of the ditch and the bases of post holes for the box rampart are considered to have survived the levelling, retaining in situ archaeological deposits. At the east end, these defences curve southwards, extended just over 100m to merge with the steep slope down to Boar’s Gill. This section of the defences is well-preserved, especially to the east of Low Town Bank Road where they can be seen as a distinct double bank with a central (now largely silted) ditch. Making good use of the hill slope, the inner bank (which is only about 1m high to the rear) presents an outer face up to 3m high, its top being some 2.5m above the top of the outer bank which similarly presents a tall outer face. Immediately to the rear of the inner bank there is a broad, shallow depression, the quarry for material for the bank. This area (and other similar areas along the rear of the defences) potentially retain buried evidence of Iron Age occupation – excavations at some other hillforts have shown such areas as being favoured for domestic use. The bank representing the box rampart comes to a distinct end at a point where a dike (formed by a broad, shallow ditch with a broad low bank to its south) runs directly down the steep slope into Boar’s Gill, the dyke being included within the area of assessment. From this point the defences continue as a pair of steepened scarps cut into the hill slope, separated by a level berm, with no evidence of upstanding banking, although, at least in places, the berm may actually be an infilled ditch. These defences have been cut through in various places by track ways (particularly either side of Low Town Bank Road), by the mid-C19 Kilburn White Horse, and on the west side by quarrying at Low Town Brow and Ivy Scar and by erosion of the cliff face of Roulston Scar.
Within the area of the monument two barrows have also been identified. One is sited on the southern edge of the levelled airfield at SE 5153 8139, now surviving to a height of 0.2m but recorded in the C19 as being about 11m in diameter and 1.8m high. It is positioned on a false crest to be clearly visible when ascending up the natural gully interpreted as the southern entrance to the fort, however it is considered to pre-date the hill fort and is likely to be of early Bronze Age date (about 2000 to 1500 BC). The other, a roughly circular mound about 8m in diameter and 0.3m high is at SE 5159 8128 may also be early Bronze Age but is similar in size to others in the area shown by excavation to have been Iron Age square barrows.
AREA OF MONUMENT: this is defined by the extent of the fort as surveyed by Historic England (then English Heritage) in 2001, generally with an additional 5m margin for the support and protection of the monument. On the south side of the monument the boundary is drawn to follow the northern side of the tarmacked footpath around the Kilburn White Horse. To the west of the White Horse, the line is drawn to follow contour lines marking the edge of the scarp, archaeological remains considered to extend to the edge of the scarp on the western side of the monument, an additional 5m margin on this side not being required. On the northern side of the monument the boundary is modified to exclude the area occupied by the buildings and hard standings of the Yorkshire Gliding Club, together with some areas of immediately adjacent land considered to have been previously disturbed.
EXCLUSIONS: within the area of the monument, tarmac road and path surfaces, fences, posts, benches, litter bins and stone plinths for information boards are all excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath remains included.
