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Prehistoric cairnfield and associated field system 800m north west and 800m north of Woodend Bridge

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1019557
Date first listed:: 24-Nov-2000

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1019557
Date first listed:: 24-Nov-2000

Location

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

County:: Cumbria
District:: Copeland (District Authority)
Parish:: Eskdale
National Park:: LAKE DISTRICT
National Grid Reference:: SD 17544 97051, SD 17777 97077

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.

Despite being crossed by a modern road, the prehistoric cairnfield and associated field system 800m north west and 800m north of Woodend Bridge survives reasonably well and forms part of a large area of well-preserved prehistoric landscape extending along the fellsides of south west Cumbria. In conjunction with a wide range of other contemporaneous remains in the vicinity the monument represents evidence of long term management and exploitation of this area in prehistoric times.

Details

The monument includes the prehistoric cairnfield and associated field system 800m north west and 800m north of Woodend Bridge. It is located along the eastern slopes of The Seat and extends both east and west of the Ulpha-Eskdale minor road. The monument represents Bronze Age exploitation of this landscape and is sub-divided into two separate areas of protection. The prehistoric cairnfield is centred at approximately SD17659705 and consists of over 100 circular and oval-shaped clearance cairns up to 0.8m high. The circular cairns measure between 1.8m to 5.5m in diameter while the oval-shaped cairns measure between 5.3m to 11m long by 1.8m to 3.8m wide. A field system associated with the cairnfield consists of a curvilinear enclosure situated to the west of the Ulpha-Eskdale road and centred at approximately SD17559698. The enclosure has entrances on the south side and at the south east corner, and contains a small number of clearance cairns and a short length of curvilinear wall considered to be the fragmentary remains of a smaller enclosure. To the east of the road the field system includes five short lengths of stone wall or bank together with two longer lengths of wall; one curvilinear and not dissimilar to the enclosure west of the road with a gap or possible entrance on its northern side, the other straight and bisecting the curvilinear wall by running through the gap or entrance. Elsewhere within the cairnfield a number of cairn-free areas may indicate the site of former fields.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 32884
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Leech, R, Birkby Fell Survey Catalogue, (1982)
Leech, R, Birkby Fell Survey Catalogue, (1982)
Quartermaine, J, Leech, R H, Upland Settlement of the Lake District: Result of Recent Surveys, (1997), 60-73
Leech, R, 'Trans Cumb and West Antiq and Arch Soc. New Ser.' in Settlement And Groups Of Small Cairns On Birkby And Birker Fells, , Vol. LXXXIII, (1983), 15-23

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.