Excavations of Iron Age and Roman Iron Age Levels at a Settlement in Glencoyne Park, Ullswater, Cumbria

This paper outlines preliminary results of four seasons of excavation at a curvilinear enclosed settlement in Glencoyne Park. The excavation formed part of a project to investigate later prehistoric settlement in Cumbria. Much information for the Neolithic and Bronze Ages derives from funerary and ritual monuments such as stone circles and burial cairns. Further, there is a lack of settlement evidence for much of prehistory, a problem that is compounded for the Iron Age by the absence or unrecognisable reuse of earlier funerary and ritual monuments. Consequently, the Iron Age is very poorly understood in Cumbria. It was a priority for the project to identify, excavate and date sites that, based on regional comparators, were likely to date to the Iron Age.