The settlement in Poolscar Wood, south of Stubbings Farm near Burley-in-Wharfedale, is a small native rural site of the Roman period situated on the southern slopes of mid-Wharfedale. It is one of a dense scatter of enclosed farmsteads characteristic of the Pennine fringes, likely occupied by an indigenous Brigantian population continuing pre-Roman traditions of mixed pastoral and arable farming into the 2nd–4th centuries AD.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site forms part of the well-known cluster of upland and valley-edge native settlements in Wharfedale that persisted under Roman rule, contributing agricultural surplus to a region militarised by the forts at Ilkley (Olicana) and Adel. It is significant primarily as evidence for the continuity of native settlement patterns in the Brigantian territory rather than as a Romanised establishment.
Earthwork survey has identified the remains of a banked enclosure with associated hut platforms and possible field boundaries, typical of the small-scale rectilinear or curvilinear native farmsteads recorded across Rombalds Moor and the Wharfe Valley. No substantive excavation has been published for this specific site, and dating to the Roman period rests largely on morphological comparison with excavated parallels such as those at Eller Edge and the Burley/Ilkley moorland enclosures.
The settlement in Poolscar Wood, south of Stubbings Farm near Burley-in-Wharfedale, is a small native rural site of the Roman period situated on the southern slopes of mid-Wharfedale. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Roman period native settlement in Poolscar Wood, 350m south of Stubbings Farm is classified as a Roman settlement — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Roman period native settlement in Danefield Wood, 490m south west of Stubbings Farm (0.3 km), Adel (6.6 km), Ilkley (Verbeia?) (11 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Roman period native settlement in Poolscar Wood, 350m south of Stubbings Farm