NORTH YORKSHIRE MOORS		Quality of Remains
		Ease of Access
		Atmosphere & Setting

Beadlam Villa:

Two wings of the fourth century villa at Beadlam have been excavated and consolidated in a field by the main road through the Moors. The north wing is particularly well preserved, displaying rooms with the stone covering of an underfloor heating system which included flues for channeling warm air inside the walls. A mosaic found on the site was not preserved in-situ, but has been put into storage for preservation. The villa is freely accessible and, with the other two sites in the Moors, makes for a pleasant sunday out in the summer.

Beadlam villa wing	Beadlam villa hypocaust flooring	Beadlam villa heating flue

Cawthorne Camps:

The collection of earthworks at Cawthorne are very interesting and quite varied. The westernmost camp is the best preserved and the first you will arrive at if you follow the signed route from the car park. This rectangular fort with its earth bank, defensive ditches and causeways to each of the three gates (the fourth side has no gate due to the precipitous drop) is actually a full fort and not a temporary camp. The date for this earth and timber fort is unknown, though it may have been contructed by the Legion from York. It is that fort that the photographs on this site show. The next camp you come to is a very large and extremely unusual coffin-shaped temporary camp. This camp is not as well preserved as the fort and predates the fort as is evidence by the southeastern corner of the fort overlying part of the camp. The three clavicular gates on this camp are visible in the east rampart. A short walk from here brings you to the easternmost camp. This has fairly impressive ditch and ramparts and there is some discussion as to whether this is a temporary camp or was intended to be a permanent fort (which its dimensions and defences and the discovery of ovens within do suggest.) This camp has an annexe roughly the same size further to the east. The most logical explanation for this large complex of earthworks is that, initially the site of a temporary camp (in the centre), this was abandoned and a timber fort constructed to the east but occupied perhaps only for a very short time before this was also abandoned in favour of the better site to the west. I would suggest that the visitor takes some time to wander round and investigate the entire site and draw their own conclusions.

Cawthorne camps ditches	Cawthorne fort gate and ramp	Aerial view & plan

Wheeldale Moor:

The Roman road known traditionally as Wade's Causeway ran from the fort at Malton to the coastal signal station at Whitby and over a mile of the road has been preserved on the heights of the Moors. There are some well preserved parts, with good solid slabs and kerbs and drains, but they are in the middle of the preserved stretch and a long walk is required to see the best parts. The road is rather neglected and some restoration work would improve the visible remains immensely.

Wheeldale Moor Roman road