Prehistoric enclosure south of The Intake, 920m south east of Stainton

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1016987
Date first listed:: 29-Oct-1999

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1016987
Date first listed:: 29-Oct-1999

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Cumberland (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Muncaster
National Park:: LAKE DISTRICT
National Grid Reference:: SD 13337 94104

Reasons for Designation

The Cumbrian uplands comprise large areas of remote mountainous terrain, much of which is largely open fellside. As a result of archaeological surveys between 1980 and 1990 within the Lake District National Park, these fells have become one of the best recorded upland areas in England. On the open fells there is sufficient well preserved and understood evidence over extensive areas for human exploitation of these uplands from the Neolithic to the post- medieval period. On the enclosed land and within forestry the archaeological remains are fragmentary, but they survive sufficiently well to show that human activity extended beyond the confines of the open fells. Bronze Age activity accounts for the most extensive use of the area, and evidence for it includes some of the largest and best preserved field systems and cairn fields in England, as well as settlement sites, numerous burial monuments, stone circles and other ceremonial remains. Taken together, their remains can provide a detailed insight into life in the later prehistoric period. Of additional importance is the well-preserved and often visible relationship between the remains of earlier and later periods, since this provides an understanding of changes in land use through time. Because of their rarity in a national context, excellent state of preservation and inter-connections, most prehistoric monuments on the Lake District fells will be identified as nationally important.

Within the upland landscape of Cumbria there are many discrete plots of land, or enclosures, enclosed by stone walls or banks of stone and earth, most of which date to the Bronze Age. They were constructed as stock pens or as protected areas for crop growing. Their size and form may therefore vary depending upon their function. Their variation in form, longevity and relation to other monument classes provide important information on the diversity of social organisation and farming practices amongst prehistoric communities. Despite some later disturbance, the prehistoric enclosure south of The Intake, 920m south east of Stainton survives reasonably well and forms part of a well- preserved prehistoric landscape extending along the fellsides of south west Cumbria. In conjunction with a wide range of other prehistoric monuments in the vicinity it represents evidence of long term management and exploitation of this area in prehistoric times.

Details

The monument includes a partly mutilated prehistoric sub-circular enclosure, located on the summit of a small spur on enclosed moorland south of The Intake, 920m south east of Stainton. The enclosure measures approximately 24m long by 21m wide; its eastern boundary is formed by a low stone bank, while the western boundary is formed by a stone wall up to 0.7m high which may be a later addition built on the site of the enclosure's original boundary bank. Breaks in the boundary bank suggest entrances on the enclosure's north and south sides.

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:: 32829
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Quartermaine, J, Leech, R H, Upland Settlement of the Lake District: Result of Recent Surveys, (1997), 51-8
Quartermaine, J, Stainton Fell Survey Catalogue, (1984)

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.