Maiden Castle - Hut Circle
Close to Maiden Castle, some 200m south east, is a well preserved hut circle (which may be square) This is also close to an ancient track, which leads up the hill close by to a broken standing stone.
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Maiden Castle hut circle, note the line of three large stones in the foreground to the right.
Site Visit Notes
This hut circle is yet more proof of the significant evidence of early occupation for the area, although no occupation evidence is known for this particular circle, it is consistent with circles excavated locally and ensewhere in the region known to date to the Late Bronze / early Iron Age period. Excavations in Malham Tarn have revealed that some hut 'circles' in the area were square and appear as circles by the nature of how a building collapses. One straight wall (to the right front of the above picture) indicated this may have followed a similar pattern.
Another view of the circle (left) and the remaining stretch of wall.
The circle is 8-10m in diameter and in one section a stretch of wall is still intact, The interior would have been lined with these larger slightly shaped stones, with a 1m gap then an outer row of large stones. The space between filled with stone 'rubble' to make an air tight seal. The circle obviously has been used as a source of stone as only a few of these larger stones remain.
© Brigantes Nation 2002