Cultivation ridges

The National Monuments Service's description

In an area of cutaway blanket bog, located on the SW-facing slope of a low knoll, on the lower west-facing slopes of the Ox Mountains.
During a programme of survey and excavation (E000769) undertaken in the 1970's and early 1980's, extensive areas of cultivation ridges (MA031-049004) were found associated with a large walled enclosure (MA031-049001-), a hut site (MA031-049003-) and a field system (MA031-049002-), all of which were sealed beneath c. 0.7m of peat (Herity 1981; O’Connell 1990). The cultivation ridges, which averaged 1.5m in width, were found throughout the interior of the enclosure, but were also found outside the enclosure. The main body of ridges extended E-W, following the natural contours of the hill slope, but bands of ridges were also found at right angles in a roughly N-S direction. Pollen analysis revealed that cereals, including wheat, were grown in the ridges. A sample of charcoal retrieved from beneath the enclosure wall gave a radiocarbon determination of 3245+/- 85 bp (1295 BC), indicating a Bronze Age date (Herity 198, 36-7). Analysis of the pollen cores suggested that there were successive phases of clearance and farming activity over the course of several centuries from the Bronze Age into the Iron Age, before the area was finally engulfed in blanket bog (O’Connell 1990, 261-70).

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 19 June 2018