Outgang Hill Survey
Analytical Field Survey in Kilnsey township, North Yorkshire, 2019.
Extract from the full report - summary
An archaeological survey has been carried out by members of the Upper Wharfedale Heritage Group as part of their ongoing investigation of the township of Kilnsey, North Yorkshire. This report covers the first phase of fieldwork coordinated by the Yorkshire Dales Landscape Research Trust over the summer of 2019 in fields to the east of Outgang Hill (Fig. 1) with the kind permission of the landowner Mr Nick Carlisle and supported by a grant from the May Foster Pickles Award. Rather than producing a feature-by-feature description this report assesses the key evidence from the survey and considers its significance. Several features continue beyond the 2019 survey area into the adjacent complex earthwork landscape, and an integrated picture will emerge as fieldwork continues in the future.
Some of the survey team on Outgang Hill in 2019
A walk-over survey was carried out to investigate earthworks identified from LiDAR mapping, and this was followed up by detailed topographical and geophysical survey of selected areas of interest. The results confirm that ground-based investigation can add considerably to the available mapping, allowing preliminary phasing of earthworks to be identified. Traces of a coaxial field system, more clearly visible beyond the 2019 survey area, were tentatively identified within a concentrated area of subsequent activity. This comprised an earthwork enclosure surrounding platforms and small enclosures, in turn overlain by foundations that may represent an early barn with at least one associated structure. A stone wall was built on top of the enclosure bank to define the field called Holes; shallow quarrying in this field may be the source of some of the stone in this wall. Immediately to the east of this field the earthwork remains of a long, narrow structure were terraced into the hillside, with access into Holes through a gateway in the wall which is now blocked up. Geophysical survey suggests the presence of structures and details that are not apparent on the surface, including a sub-rectangular structure on a platform in the southern part of the survey area that will be further investigated in the next phase of fieldwork.
Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2019
Location of the 2019 survey area in Upper Wharfedale.
Download the full report here.