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Bell-pits from coal mining, Reagill & Sleagill, Eden, Cumbria.

7/9/2026

There are at least thirty spoil heaps near Sleagill from medieval or post-medieval mining, the majority of which are circular and have a central shaft.

A Geological Survey Report published in 1893 refers to:
a thin and not very pure, but remarkably persistent, bed of coal . . . [which] may be traced for three miles or more in the neighbourhood of Reagill. It is rarely more than 8 or 10 inches in thickness; but at one time, judging by the number and extent of workings, . . . must have been regarded locally as of considerable importance.

The thin seams of coal have not been worked for more than 150 years.

Tyson, B. (2004). Coal mining at Reagill, Sleagill and Newby, 1683-c.1837.. Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society 4 (series 3). Vol 4, pp. 175-200.
https://doi.org/10.5284/1064638

Bell pits and mining remains near Reagill. LIDAR (DTM).

Moated site at Fozy Moss

27/8/2026

Ring & Bailey, Fozy Moss. Photo A Curtis (2014).

Moated site and fish-pond, 1km ENE of Sewingshields on Fozy Moss (Simonburn, Northumberland, UK).

Location: NY 81782 70708

I've always been intrigued by this site and its possible relationship with Sewingshields Castle of which very little remains. It is described as a moated site (incorporating a fish-pond on the north side) which seems to occupy a small knoll sitting in the middle of boggy moorland. It has been described as a medieval 'slightly unusual ring motte'. A recent description suggested that the earthwork may have originally been an island, located in the lough north of Hadrian's Wall, which was drained before about 1730 or even that it could be the remains of a crannog of late prehistoric or post-Roman date.

Keys to the Past: N7838

The moated site at Fozy Moss is a Scheduled Monument: List Entry: 1011080

Pond within Ring & Bailey enclosure, Fozy Moss. Photo A Curtis (2014).

I posted this on the LiDAR and Aerial Archaeology group page on Facebook on 7th November 2024.

A contributor, Alistair Paul, commented: ·
"Is that not for trapping wild fowl? they use a pond and curving trap coming off it".

He included a link to the following article:
Robinson, K. (2004). Duck decoys in Kent.
Kent Archaeol Rev 156. Vol 156, pp. 125-128.

The author states that "... the first pipe decoy in England was built by Sir William Wodehouse (d.1639) on his estate at Waxham, Norfolk, c.1620."

If the moated site at Fozy Moss is indeed a duck pipe decoy it is an unusual one. Most of the custom decoys were either crab- or starfish-shaped with a pond of one to two acres in area and a maximum of three feet in depth. Four to six pipes were usual though eight pipes is known.

Example of a decoy pond from Norfolk.

Fozy Moss & the mystery of Sewingshields Castle, Northumberland, UK.

I posted some images recently of the interesting little moated site at Fozy Moss. Someone suggested here that it could have been a medieval duck decoy. You can see it in the lidar image (below, top right). To the left are the prominent two adjacent fish-ponds associated with Sewingshields Castle. Part of another fish pond lies further east. Fish and ducks would have been good medieval food supplies. The site of the castle is shown on the early OS maps. There is a slight shadow on the lidar in the location shown but no remains are visible and if that is the correct location then a castle appears to have completely disappeared.

Perhaps the moated site is not a fish-pond or duck decoy but really the castle!

The Gateway record comments make interesting reading. It is unambiguously called a castrum in the 1415 list and described as 'pretty large' by Sir John Clerk. It was reported as ruined by 1592. Can it have been that large a building for ploughing and stone recycling to have completely erased its existence?
http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English.../2800.html

".. No towers are seen on the wild heath, but those that Fancy builds,
And save a fosse that tracks the moor with green, Is nought remains to tell of what may there have been."

Description of the Castle of the Seven Shields from Harold the Dauntless (The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott).

Moated site at Fozy Moss. Contours from lidar dtm at interval of 0.2m.

Screenshot of 3D contoured model on Sketchfab. Click image for link.

Elevation profile from N-S across moated site at Fozy Moss.

How does the Fozy Moss moated site compare to other small motte & bailey castle sites?

Below is a screenshot of a 3D model (from dtm lidar) with contours at 0.2m interval.of the earthwork remains of a small motte & bailey castle on Edburton Hill in West Sussex, perched on the northern edge of the North Downs above the village of Fulking.

Location: TQ 23787 10984

Scheduled Monument: 1012171

The monument includes the earthworks and interior area of a motte and bailey castle believed to date from the immediate post-Conquest period, soon after October 1066. On the south side of the monument is a circular mound - the motte - 30m in diameter and 2m above the general ground level at its crest. The centre of the motte is scarred by a depression resulting from mistaken barrow-digging in the 19th century, but much of the motte survives intact. It is completely surrounded by a ditch some 6m wide and still nearly 1m deep, and beyond the ditch around the southern half is a low bank 0.6m high which has been truncated slightly by ploughing on the southern extremity.

Although this site is located at the opposite end of the country, despite the superficial resemblance between them, there are several important differences. Notable ones are the location, almost flat bog verses edge of a steep escarpment. The earthworks on Edburton Hill also has a dome-shaped motte (even though part has been dug into) in comparison with the wholly concave pond at Fozy Moss. If it ever was a motte, it has been totally dug out to create a pond.

'The Land' by Rudyard Kipling

15/8/2026

Rudyard Kipling was enchanted by the Sussex landscape surrounding his house, Bateman’s. Many of his stories and poems are set in this landscape, and draw on its rich history, archaeology, and folklore. In this paper we examine Kipling’s 1917 poem The Land, which weaves together strands of
landscape archaeology and nationalist origin mythology. The Land is the story of a single Sussex field, its colonial landowners from Roman Britain to the present, and the generations of the peasant Hobden family who care for it. In examining the poem we consider the notions of Englishness that Kipling conjures, their disconnection from the realities of rural Sussex,

Part of the introduction from:
Moshenska, G., Daykin, D., Guo, Y., Schmidt, J., Unwin, E., & Wehr, J. (2021). Reading Kipling’s The Land Through a Lens of Archaeology, Landscape, and English Nationalism. Public Archaeology, 20(1–4), 51–62.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14655187.2020.2058764

Batemans House - a National Trust owned 17th century Jacobean house. Once home of writer Rudyard Kipling. Photo © Copyright Oast House Archive and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

1
When Julius Fabricius, Sub-Prefect of the Weald,
In the days of Diocletian owned our Lower River-field,
He called to him Hobdenius—a Briton of the Clay,
Saying: "What about that River-piece for layin' in to hay?"
2
And the aged Hobden answered: "I remember as a lad
My father told your father that she wanted dreenin' bad.
An' the more that you neeglect her the less you'll get her clean.
Have it jest as you've a mind to, but, if I was you, I'd dreen."
3
So they drained it long and crossways in the lavish Roman style--
Still we find among the river-drift their flakes of ancient tile,
And in drouthy middle August, when the bones of meadows show,
We can trace the lines they followed sixteen hundred years ago.
4
Then Julius Fabricius died as even Prefects do,
And after certain centuries, Imperial Rome died too.
Then did robbers enter Britain from across the Northern main
And our Lower River-field was won by Ogier the Dane.
5
Well could Ogier work his war-boat—well could Ogier wield his brand--
Much he knew of foaming waters—not so much of farming land.
So he called to him a Hobden of the old unaltered blood,
Saying: "What about that River-piece; she doesn't look no good?"
6
And that aged Hobden answered "'Tain't for me to interfere.
But I've known that bit o' meadow now for five and fifty year.
Have it jest as you've a mind to, but I've proved it time on' time,
If you want to change her nature you have got to give her lime!"
7
Ogier sent his wains to Lewes, twenty hours' solemn walk,
And drew back great abundance of the cool, grey, healing chalk.
And old Hobden spread it broadcast, never heeding what was in't--
Which is why in cleaning ditches, now and then we find a flint.
8
Ogier died. His sons grew English—Anglo-Saxon was their name--
Till out of blossomed Normandy another pirate came;
For Duke William conquered England and divided with his men,
And our Lower River-field he gave to William of Warenne.
9
But the Brook (you know her habit) rose one rainy autumn night
And tore down sodden flitches of the bank to left and right.
So, said William to his Bailiff as they rode their dripping rounds:
"Hob, what about that River-bit—the Brook's got up no bounds?"
10
And that aged Hobden answered: "'Tain't my business to advise,
But ye might ha' known 'twould happen from the way the valley lies.
Where ye can't hold back the water you must try and save the sile.
Hev it jest as you've a mind to, but, if I was you, I'd spile!"
11
They spiled along the water-course with trunks of willow-trees,
And planks of elms behind 'em and immortal oaken knees.
And when the spates of Autumn whirl the gravel-beds away
You can see their faithful fragments, iron-hard in iron clay.
12
Georgii Quinti Anno Sexto, I, who own the River-field,
Am fortified with title-deeds, attested, signed and sealed,
Guaranteeing me, my assigns, my executors and heirs
All sorts of powers and profits which—are neither mine nor theirs,
13
I have rights of chase and warren, as my dignity requires.
I can fish—but Hobden tickles—I can shoot—but Hobden wires.
I repair, but he reopens, certain gaps which, men allege,
Have been used by every Hobden since a Hobden swapped a hedge.
14
Shall I dog his morning progress o'er the track-betraying dew?
Demand his dinner-basket into which my pheasant flew?
Confiscate his evening faggot under which my conies ran,
And summons him to judgment? I would sooner summons Pan.
15
His dead are in the churchyard—thirty generations laid.
Their names were old in history when Domesday Book was made;
And the passion and the piety and prowess of his line
Have seeded, rooted, fruited in some land the Law calls mine.
16
Not for any beast that burrows, not for any bird that flies,
Would I lose his large sound counsel, miss his keen amending eyes.
He is bailiff, woodman, wheelwright, field-surveyor, engineer,
And if flagrantly a poacher—'tain't for me to interfere.
17
"Hob, what about that River-bit?" I turn to him again,
With Fabricius and Ogier and William of Warenne.
"Hev it jest as you've a mind to, but"—and here he takes command.
For whoever pays the taxes old Mus' Hobden owns the land.

National Trust
Bateman's, Sussex
The family home of world-famous writer Rudyard Kipling, known for The Jungle Book and Just So Stories. Built in 1634, this Jacobean house is in the Sussex countryside.
Bateman's Lane, Burwash, East Sussex, TN19 7DS
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/sussex/batemans

Grade I Listed Building: 1044063

National Trust Heritage Records Online: MNA125427

Parks & Gardens: Batemans

East Hill, Hastings, Sussex

30/6/2026

Coastal promontory hillfort located on East Hill above coastal chalk cliffs SE-SW. Measures c. 730m transversely NE-SW enclosing c. 14ha. Very steep natural chalk sea cliffs on S quadrants, with easiest approach on NE bounded by rampart, c. 144m long, to 3.5m high internally and on N and W by natural sandstone scarps. Substantial erosion of sea cliffs would have destroyed any detail of enclosure to S.

Atlas of Hillforts: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk/records/EN3727.html

East Hill, Hastings, East Sussex: A Landscape Survey and Investigation: https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/35-2008

National Library of Scotland - OS 25" (c1900) & ESRI satellite.

3D Lidar landscape on Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/pLzuM

Grasmere Island, Lake District

14/6/2026

This recent post on the LiDAR and Aerial Archaeology Group of Facebook sparked my interest.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1508789132952429/?multi_permalinks=2398701490627851

The post describes an apparently circular enclosure revealed in the lidar dtm on the summit of the small wooded island in the centre of Grasmere lake. The author of the post suggested it might be prehistoric, and previously unrecorded.

Enhancing the lidar using a local relief model certainly shows a feature there which I was quick to confirm by that and other enhancements. The author suggested it shows a bank, a ditch, then another bank enclosing a sunken hollow at the top.

I still have doubts (and feel much less certain than 50:50) for reasons I will hopefully explain below. That said, the only way to be sure that this is something or nothing is a ground-truthing visit which perhaps the National Trust archaeologists will manage in the future. My reaction to these things is to explore the topography in as much detail as I can. Visitors to the island are not currently allowed so only remote methods are available.

I can certainly confirm that there appears to be something shown on lidar images (here I call it a 'doughnut') on the south end of Grasmere Island. It appears to be approximately 50m in diameter, apparently enclosing the summit.

The two images below are my favourite and most used methods of enhancing lidar images for archaeology use.

Feeling the need to explore the topography of the island (and this feature/anomaly) in more detail I had a look at the 3D visualisations which you can derive from the lidar data in several ways using QGIS. One of my favourite ways is using contours, here overlaid on a multi-directional hillshade.

From the level of the lake (about 61m above sea level), the south end of Grasmere Island rises to a peak (75m ASL) which occupies a broad ridge running NE-SW from a slightly lower second summit on the N part of the island. With a contour interval of 0.5m, the 14m between the water level of the lake and the summit are modelled by 28 contour lines which closely define the shape and altitude of the island and show us where the slopes are steepest.

A second ridge runs steeply down from the main summit SE towards the lake where a building is indicated on the map (locally described as a barn). It is the site of William Wordsworth's poem: Inscription for the House (an Out-house) on the Island at Grasmere.

The question I pose is: does the lidar show ditches and banks encircling a summit (perhaps a small fortified enclosure) or something more natural?

Below using the elevation profile tool showing a section across the southern summit. This suggests a series of steps, about 2m high to the NW of the summit and they certainly don't model a doughnut ring or hollow centre. There are hints of small valley features running along the hillside just below the lower step on the W and NW sides, but these don't continue round the contours on the steep E side.

You can clearly see the two upper steps or ledges in the elevation profile shown below.

Elevation Profile on line across the steps and the southern island summit from NW-SE.

Using a contour interval of 0.1m (perhaps pushing the resolution a little too far) I believe we can duplicate all the elements of the island doughnut, apart perhaps for the ditch (if that is what there is) which lies just below the second steep slope NW of the summit ridge. The contours confirm what we see using a slope analysis from lidar. In this representation, the steepest slopes are rendered as black, and flatter areas as white and lighter shades of grey.

The same of course can be demonstrated in a 3D model but is best when you can look yourself rather than on a screen capture from a single angle screenshot as shown below. The interactive model from which this screenshot was taken is freely available on Sketchfab and doesn't need to be downloaded.

3D model of the summit of Grasmere Island from the SE from DTM lidar rendered using CVAT and overlaid with contours at 0.1m. Vertical exaggeration used is x2.

Does any of this prove that the features are natural rather than man-made? Maybe not, but they give me huge doubts that only a ground observation can confirm.

If the feature is of natural origin then how might it be explained?

The contour model suggests to me something called trap topography - a step-like landscape formed by layered volcanic rocks. It occurs when alternating layers of hard, erosion-resistant lava and softer, crumbly volcanic ash weather away at different speeds. The hard lava forms steep cliffs (scarps), while the soft layers form flat shelves (benches), creating a natural staircase. There are certainly hints of this in the neighbouring hills and it is well known in the volcanic hills of the Lakes. I think similar features are visible, for example, in the area around Hardknott Roman Fort.

There is much geological data about this area of the Lake District here:
https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/memoirs/docs/B01517.html
I can find little information about the topography and geomorphology of Grasmere Island itself, although a volcanic origin does appear likely.

Is what we are seeing in the lidar here a small scale version of trap topography along with some natural drainage? Now I wonder: what are those three small mounds at the N end of the island, NW of the southern summit?

My thanks to Adam Ibbotson for spotting this feature and for an interesting and stimulating post. They happen very rarely on Facebook. The analysis and interpretation here are of course my own.

© David Martin (cc-by-sa/2.0) geograph.org.uk/p/6277208 Wooded island in Grasmere, taken Tuesday, 17 September, 2019

Hardknott Roman Fort, Cumbria

12/6/2026

3D Lidar landscape on Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/pKozv

English Heritage: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/.../hardknot.../history/

LIDAR (DSM, 1m) copyright Environment Agency (2022) - enhanced for archaeology.

The three images below show contours at interval of 0.5m created in QGIS from dsm lidar.

Long barrow on Trainford Brow (Low Moor), north of Lowther, Cumbria

28/5/2026

There has been a bit of a dispute whether this is a Long Barrow (Neolithic Long Cairn) or just a spoil heap from a road cutting.

The Lake District National Park HER states:
The mound, first noted by C W Phillips and O G S Crawford in 1938 was dismissed by the RCHME around the same time as follows: "The wayfarer approaching the cross-roads nearly a mile ENE of Lowther Castle might eye suspiciously a long mound withinthe NW angle of the crossing, but would probably conclude that it is nothing more than an old spoil dump from the neighbouring road cutting". Notwithstanding this, the balance of probability appears to have fallen in favour of identification as a genuine long cairn, resulting in the site's scheduling. The most recent published description (Masters 1984) concludes with the following: "In fairness to the contra opinion expressed by the Royal Commission over forty years ago, it must be admitted that the minor road which runs along the S side of the cairn is in a cutting which gets progressively deeper from W to E. This does, of course, correspond to an increase in volume of cairn material, but in the absence of further evidence to the contrary, the balance of probability still seems to me to favour a long cairn rather than a spoil dump."

https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=63ad3334-1b06-498c-a67a-3b413dfc1e72&resourceID=19191

The mound is under a belt of trees on the north side of a minor road. It measures 101 metres long and orientated east-west. Its width varies from 13 to 28 metres and the height between 1.5 and 3.8 metres. Lidar clearly shows that the minor road approaching its junction with the A6 has been deepened but the gradients are not huge and one wonders why.

In the absence of information from excavation I wondered if lidar could help solve the mystery.

Scheduled Monument: 1012825

http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/lowmoor.htm

https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/2201/low-moor

Elevation profiles from DTM Lidar taken in four places over the road. 1: west of the road cutting, 2: over the road cutting west of the mound, 3 and 4: over mound and road cutting.

Lidar (DTM 1m) overlaid with contours at 0.5m. The road below the cairn is gently downhill from W to E and has been cut into lessening the gradient of descent (and widening the gap between the contours) before its junction with the main A6 shown on the right side. Could the mounds have originated with material supplied by the road cutting?

No mound is shown here on the early OS maps. The profiles seem to suggest to me that you could easily fit the material from the cairn into the road cutting. It should be possible to estimate the volumes from a 3D model (if I knew how). The road was there in 1860 so perhaps the spoil wasn't removed very far. Perhaps most of it would be glacial till accounting for the boulders found inside. Lidar suggests both roads (old and new) approaching Lowther Castle had been graded in several more places with both cuttings and embankments.

To enable further exploration of the Lowther Castle Estate I created a 3D Lidar landscape model on Sketchfab.

Lowther Castle, South of Penrith, Cumbria

26/5/2026

Today I am looking at the extensive parkland around the ruined mansion of Lowther Castle.

Wikipedia: Lowther Castle

Historic England Grade II Listed: 1000668

At the southern end of the estate, enhanced DTM lidar highlights two mounds (in white) surrounded by ditches (in black) located in grassland, just S of a large (perhaps recent) pond. The mounds are about 15m in diameter and about 0..5m high. They look very like Bronze Age burial mounds (tumuli or barrows). But are they a bit too neat to be prehistoric? The Historic Environment Record describes them as: "Possible ring ditches (circular or near circular ditches which may be the remains of ploughed out round barrows, round houses, or of modern features such as searchlight emplacements) of unknown date that appear as crop marks."

It also provides an alternative explanation for the features as old circular coppices, apparently "shown on a map of probably 18th century date kept in the Lowther Estate Office that when Lowther Castle was rebuilt in 1809 the Landscape Architect would have been of the opinion that the older circular coppices detracted from the newly-planted avenue as it appears from the Castle window".
Lake District National Park HER: 5375

There are several such circular ditched features in the northern part of the estate but they are nearly all of larger diameter and without raised central mounds. They look much more like tree planting rings than these do.

The two features shown near the pond are some 2.5km SW of the ruined mansion, nowhere near planted avenues, and blocked from line of sight by much higher land. If they really appear on the 18th century map as tree rings there would be no doubt. There is no hint of rings on the 1st edition OS map (c.1860) although that map suggests the pond may have been created on a site of clay extraction used by a nearby tile works. Evidence suggests that the features have been there for some time. Perhaps, rather than for tree planting, they are just fake archaeology created as special features within the parkland. They would certainly have been visible approaching the castle on Emperor's Drive from the former lodge on the A6.

On the prehistoric side of the argument, an archaeology report of part of Lowther Park by Oxford Archaeology North published in January 2005 states that "... the earliest identified activity within the vicinity of the park is from the Bronze Age: there are a pair of round cairns just south of the park Round Hill (NY 541 219)".
Gajos, Hannah (2005) Lowther Deer Park, Cumbria. Archaeological Survey and Evaluation.

Elevation profile across the two mounds (data from DTM Lidar).

Below lidar image (using DTM to remove trees) to compare the two mounds with several probable ditched tree-ring plantation features in the area of Lowther medieval village and the Castle Stead (Castlesteads) possible ring-work situated just north of the ruined mansion of Lowther Castle.

LIDAR (DSM, 1m) copyright Environment Agency (2022) - enhanced for archaeology.

Medieval village of Lowther

Includes St Michael's Church, Castle Stead (a possible Norman ring-work castle) and the deserted medieval village of Lowther, all situated north of Lowther Castle (the name of the ruined mansion house) above a steep bank above the River Lowther. Note that the several perfect circular ditched enclosures are likely former tree ring plantations often overlying earlier features.

The earthwork called Castle Stead is a rectangular ramparted enclosure 30m by 25m with very substantial ramparts 4-5m thick standing to 3m in height. The rampart is much thicker in the SE corner, possibly being the location of a tower. There are two possible entrances, one in the south and the other in the east. The predominantly earthwork form of the structure, the paucity of collapsed masonry and the possible twelfth century date would suggest that this was not a peel towe and is too small to have been a motte and bailey, but could have been a timber ringwork castle.
"The ancient village of Lowther was heretofor considerable, consisting of the hall, the church, the parsonage house, and seventeen tenements, messuages, and cottages, all of which were purchased by Sir John Lowther, in the year 1682, and pulled down to enlarge his demesne and open the prospect of his house, for they stood just in front of it’.

Wikipedia:Castle Stead

Gatehouse - Castle Stead, Lowther

Lancaster University: Lowther Medieval Castle and Village

Castle Studies Trust - Geophysical survey and excavation (2023)

3D Lidar landscape on Sketchfab:
DTM: https://skfb.ly/pK9Ls
DSM: https://skfb.ly/pK9KR

North Dissington Deserted Medieval Village

13/4/2026

Deserted Medieval Village of North Dissington, Northumberland.
Remains of the village within the parkland of Dissington Hall.

The township seems to have been a large settlement during the Middle Ages. In 1312 13 people were assessed in the Lay Subsidy. The village survived into the 16th century. In 1518 there were 16 tenements and seven cottages. Twenty three occupants were recorded in a rental of 1518.

North Dissington was part of the inheritance of Sir Robert Delaval, and was affected by his policy of pastoral demesne farming. Seems not to have been completely deserted. The Hearth Tax of 1666 recorded one house with six hearths, two with one each and one exempt. Described as a 'small village' by Warburton in 1715. The last few houses had disappeared by the end of the 18th century, and a plan of 1777 shows the area as a park.

K2P: N10979

Beresford's Lost Villages: North Dissington

Cerne Abbas & its Giant

18/3/2026

Cerne Abbas, Dorset.

Location: ST 6667 0168

Scheduled Monument: Hill figure called The Giant

Scheduled Monument: Earthworks on Giant Hill

National Trust Archaeology Record: MNA138903

LIDAR (DSM, 1m) copyright Environment Agency (2022) - enhanced for archaeology.

Hill figures are unique to England and are found on the chalk scarp slopes across southern Enland with a few outlying examples in Yorkshire. Most of the figures are horses or military badges but there are two human figures, the Long Man of Wilmington (E Sussex) and the Cerne Abbas Giant.

The Giant is a 55m high chalk-cut figure, picked out in regularly replaced chalk, standing on the SW steep slope pf Giant Hill (Trendle Hill) above the viallage of Cerne Abbas and its abbey. The Giant carries a club in his right hand and has been called "Britain's most famous phallus" although some evidence suggests he wasn't always depicted without clothes.

There has been much speculation among antiquaries and archaeologists regarding his age, identity and meaning. The first known historical refernce is to a repair of the Giant in 1694. There is no mention of the figure in earlier records, notably a 1617 survey of the area by John Norden, who was famously thorough. There have been speculation that the Giant may have been constructed as far back as the prehistoric, with other theories suggesting Roman, early or late medieval periods.

Since 1920 the Giant has been in the care of the National Trust. The small excavations undertaken in 2020 were designed to collect samples of snail shells and soil at various layers of his construction which could provide accurate dating evidence. Quartz grains retrieved and kept in the dark can be dated using OSL (optically stimulated luminescence).

Examination of snail shells suggested the hill figure is "medieval or later". Snails dating only from the Roman period (brought from France as food) were not found at the site, while species first found in England from the 13th and 14th centuries were found. The OSL study yielded a date range for construction of 700–1100 CE in the early medieval to late Anglo-Saxon period.The discovery was featured in Series 9, Episode 5of the BBC series Digging for Britain.

National Trust SW Archaeology blog:

Dating the Cerne Giant Results!

Cerne Giant the OSL dates

Below the specially flown drone over the Giant and adjacent area to get a good LiDAR survey of his earthworks (Downland Partnership).

Archaeology National Trust SW blog. Posted by martinpapworth, May 9th 2021.

"The processed LiDAR image of the Cerne Giant with the Trendle earthwork above him clearly outlined. A rectilinear structure, probably building footings can be seen in the centre of the eartwork and top left what look like prehistoric rectilinear field boundaries approaching the enclosure. On the Giant the pronounced earthworks from soil settling on his horizontal lines can be seen on his elbows and feet as lines of yellow and his nose, recreated in 1993, glows bright yellow."

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/dorset/cerne-giant/history-of-the-cerne-giant

A Date With the Two Cerne Giants: Reinvestigating an Iconic British Hill Figure (the National Trust Excavations 2020). Allen, Michael J (Editor)
Oxbow Books (2024).

"The date of the Cerne Giant has long been a matter for debate, as exemplified by a public and televised debate of March 1996, published as The Cerne Giant: An Antiquity on Trial (1999, Oxbow Books). Excavations were conducted in 2020 by the National Trust in the centenary year of its ownership of the Giant. The excavations were limited and targeted in extent and scope, the aim was to date the actual construction of the iconic figure by absolute dating methods (OSL). As the 1999 publication explained, the jury was still out – with advocates for a prehistoric origin, one connected to the period of the Civil War or a more modern one. In the event, the dates were a complete surprise, falling within the Anglo-Saxon period."

3D lidar landscape on Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/pHFJL

Wikipedia: Cerne Abbas Giant

Detail from HE Aerial Archaeology Mapping Explorer (accessed 2026).

https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/aerial-archaeology-mapping-explorer/

Find area of interest using ST666016 in a grid reference search.