This is a small native rural settlement on the limestone uplands of the Eden Valley near Kirkby Stephen in Cumbria, lying in the hinterland of the Roman fort at Brough-under-Stainmore (Verteris) and the trans-Pennine road over Stainmore. Like other farmsteads of the Cumbrian fells, it most likely originated in the later Iron Age and continued in use through the Romano-British period (broadly 1st–4th centuries AD), representing a continuity of indigenous Brigantian pastoral farming under Roman rule.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site forms part of a dense pattern of small enclosed farmsteads across Smardale, Crosby Garrett and Waitby that fed the military supply economy of the Stainmore frontier corridor, producing livestock, hides and wool. Such settlements illustrate how Brigantian communities persisted largely unchanged in material culture and economy despite proximity to the Roman road network and garrisons.
The site is known principally from aerial photography and earthwork survey as a small enclosed settlement with associated stock enclosures and traces of cord-rig cultivation and field systems typical of the Howgill–Eden upland group; no significant excavation has been published, so its internal chronology and finds assemblage remain essentially unknown.
This is a small native rural settlement on the limestone uplands of the Eden Valley near Kirkby Stephen in Cumbria, lying in the hinterland of the Roman fort at Brough-under-Stainmore (Verteris) and the trans-Pennine road over Stainmore. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a site site from the Roman period in Britain.
Smardale Demesne Romano-British farmstead, 700m south west of Holme Farm is classified as a Roman site — 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 Two round cairns, three Romano-British settlements and aggregate field systems at Severals and Intake, and Smardale Gill lime kilns and quarry (1.5 km), Whitber Romano-British farmstead 660m south west of Highmore Hill (1.7 km), Two Romano-British enclosed settlements and an associated regular aggregate field system at Waitby Intake (2 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 Smardale Demesne Romano-British farmstead, 700m south west of Holme Farm