Skirsgill is a Romano-British native farmstead in the Eden Valley near Penrith, Cumbria, consisting of an enclosed stone-built hut circle settlement associated with a regular aggregate field system. It is one of a cluster of small upland-fringe farms in the area that were occupied broadly between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, representing the indigenous Brigantian rural population continuing pre-Roman settlement traditions under Roman administration.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site forms part of the dense pattern of native farming settlements in the hinterland of the Roman fort at Brougham (Brocavum) and along the Carlisle–York road, illustrating how local communities supplied agricultural produce — likely a mixed cattle and cereal economy — to the military and civilian markets of the northern frontier zone. It is not individually distinguished but contributes to understanding the wider landscape of Romano-British rural Cumbria.
The site is known primarily from earthwork survey, showing stone-walled hut circles within an enclosure linked to coaxial fields defined by low banks and lynchets; no significant published excavation has been undertaken, and dating rests on morphological parallels with excavated sites such as Crosby Garrett and Ewe Close rather than stratified finds from Skirsgill itself.
Skirsgill is a Romano-British native farmstead in the Eden Valley near Penrith, Cumbria, consisting of an enclosed stone-built hut circle settlement associated with a regular aggregate field system. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Skirsgill Romano-British enclosed stone hut circle settlement, Romano-British farmstead, and Romano-British regular aggregate field system 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 Romano-British settlement at Cragside Wood (3.4 km), Romano-British settlement and regular aggregate field system north of Yanwath Wood (3.7 km), Brocavum (7 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 Skirsgill Romano-British enclosed stone hut circle settlement, Romano-British farmstead, and Romano-British regular aggregate field system