Crosedale shieling site

Description

Unexcavated Crosedale shieling MYD36551 (c) YDNPA, 2023

The site at Crosedale in the Howgill Fells was excavated by the Sedbergh and District History Society in the 1990s. They found the stone foundations of a small rectangular building (about 10 metres x 5 metres) set on a levelled platform dug into the natural slope of the hillside. Finds of pottery and a firepit indicated that the building had a domestic function, most likely as a summer shelter for farmers watching over stock grazing upland pastures. Such buildings are known as scales or sheilings. The finds suggested that it was built during or before the late twelfth century. It seems to have continued in use until its final abandonment during the late thirteenth to fourteenth centuries. The location of the firepit in the eastern corner of the building means that the roof was probably made from relatively fireproof turf. The walls of the hut may have been entirely of stone or with an upper layer of turf or timber resting on stone footings. Nothing now remains of the Crosedale shieling but an excellent unexcavated example lies a short distance to the north.

Crosedale – excavation 1990s MYD36551 © N Hair & R Newman, 2004.

Source:

Hair, N & Newman, R (1999)”Excavation of Medieval Settlement Remains at Crosedale in Howgill” TCWAAS. Vol 99 pp141-158