Details

The monument includes a section of the linear earthwork known as Scots Dyke
which extends from the River Tees to south of the River Swale. This section,
250m south east of St Martin's Priory, consists of a bank and flanking ditch
extending for a total of 40m west from the disused railway to the A6136
road, and is located on the north facing slope extending down to the River
Swale.
The dyke comprises an earthen bank up to 1.5m high and 10m wide with the ditch
lying to the south. The ditch has been partly infilled and, where it survives
as an earthwork, it is 3m wide and 0.5m deep.
The dyke is truncated at the west end by the road and modern housing although
it continues again in the fields to the south. To the east the dyke is
truncated by the railway although it continues again 250m to the north east
where it is scheduled as a separate monument.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Scots Dyke is a linear earthwork extending for 14km from the River Tees to
south of the River Swale in North Yorkshire. Significant sections remain
visible as upstanding earthworks and indicate that the dyke system had an
earthen rampart flanked on the eastern side by a ditch. Where not preserved
as an upstanding monument, the dyke is visible as a cropmark on aerial
photographs and elsewhere often survives as a low bank beneath present field
boundaries. It was constructed in the post Roman period and encloses an area
in the eastern foothills of the Pennines between the two rivers. This area
contained wealthy arable and pastoral land as well as some of the mineral
resources of the northern Pennines. Linear earthworks were used to divide
territory for military, economic and political purposes, often using natural
features such as rivers and watersheds to define an area. Scots Dyke was built
to consolidate territorial and economic units in response to changing
political circumstances during the sixth and seventh centuries AD. These
changes were brought about, at least in part, by the arrival of the Anglians
in northern England. Fewer than 50 examples of linear earthwork boundaries of
post Roman date have been identified in England. As a rare monument type of
considerable importance to the study of early medieval territorial patterns,
all surviving examples are identified as being of national importance.
This section of Scots Dyke survives well and will retain significant
archaeological remains which will contain important information about the
development of the landscape in the post Roman period.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
RCHME, , Scots Dyke, (1986)
Maclaughlan, , 'Archaeological Journal' in Roman Roads Camps and Earthworks in the North Riding, , Vol. VOL 6, (1849), 221-225

Source: Historic England