Stanwick Iron Age Fortifications

Stanwick Iron Age Fortifications reveals part of an enormous centre of Brigantian power in northern Britain, enclosed by roughly four miles of defensive earthworks. The section displayed today is only a small part of that circuit, with a rock-cut ditch and stone-faced rampart uncovered during Sir Mortimer Wheeler's excavations in the 1950s. Those investigations connected the defences with the first century AD, when local rulers negotiated and contested their relationship with Rome. The surviving bank rewards a close look, although reviewers warn that vegetation and the limited visible section can make the original scale difficult to grasp. The entrance is easy to miss on a narrow country road, and there is no formal car park. Steps climb the bank, making the site unsuitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs. Dogs on leads are permitted only in the designated areas.