See important guidance on the use of this record.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

An Iron Age defended settlement, consisting of a semicircular bank and ditch which peters out to the south. Probably represents an an unusual example of an unfinished enclosure.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1020273: Iron Age defended settlement in Dunterue Wood, 570m south of Castle Head
• Registered Park or Garden (I) 1000428: ENDSLEIGH
• SHINE: Prehistoric enclosure in Dunterue Wood
• Scheduled Monument 1020273: Iron Age defended settlement in Dunterue Wood, 570m south of Castle Head
• Registered Park or Garden (I) 1000428: ENDSLEIGH

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX37NE/506
• Old SAM Ref: 35251
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX37NE12

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• DEFENDED ENCLOSURE (Iron Age - 700 BC to 42 AD (Between))

Full description

Gover, J. E. B. + Mawer, A. + Stenton, F. M., 1931, The Place-Names of Devon: Part One (Monograph). SDV1312.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1951 - 1952, SX37NE12 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV343844.

Undated earthwork on comparatively low lying ground, which slopes away to the River Tamar to the east. The banks and ditches are well preserved with an entrance on the north side carried across a causeway, which interrupts the ditch. The work is open to the south and does not appear to have been completed on this side. It is in a poor defensive position to have, and may have been protected by a strong bank to the north at Castle Head. Date and purpose unknown. It may be a well preserved, unfinished earthwork of a similar type to the small enclosure a mile to the north-west, which is also sited on a slope.

Griffith, F. M., 1987, Untitled Source (Personal Comment). SDV343843.

Site visit on 20th April 1987, with Walford and Brierley. The earthwork enclosure is in excellent condition under woodland fairly conservatively managed. Banks and ditches are sharp and undisturbed. Their absence at the southern end of the site really does make this look 'unfinshed'. The site is not strong defensively: it is very hard to connect this with the castle head earthwork as the Ordnance Survey do - the scale of this site is domestic, and would probably have been more vulnerable from the river than from the top of the hill.

Dyer, M. J. + Manning, P. T., 1998, Objective 5B: Lower Tamar Valley Recreation and Land Management Iinitiative: Cultural Heritage Appraisal, 12 (Report - non-specific). SDV319814.

Semi-circular earthwork in Dunterue Wood. Situated opposite Carthamartha hillfort across the Tamar in Cornwall. Name Dunterue derives from Celtic 'duno' (fort) plus 'tref' (homestead, village) plus Old English 'hoh' (spur of land). Refers to distinctive promontory in bend of Tamar.

Environment Agency, 2000-2019, LiDAR DTM data (1m resolution) EA: Tamar Aerial Survey project area, LIDAR Environment Agency LAST RETURN 20-FEB-2005 (Cartographic). SDV363954.

Curvilinear banks and ditches are faintly visible as subtle earthworks.

Cornwall Archaeological Unit, 2001-2002, Tamar Valley National Mapping Programme Transcriptions and Database Records, RAF/3G/TUD/137/5110 & 11 11-APR-1946 (Interpretation). SDV346287.

An earthwork bank and ditched enclosure of unknown, but potential prehistoric, date is visible on aerial photographs of 1946.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2002, Iron Age Defended Settlement in Dunterue Wood, 570 Metres South of Castle Head (Schedule Document). SDV343842.

This monument includes part of an Iron Age defended settlement situated on a low lying spur within a meander of the River Tamar. The monument survives as a semicircular bank and ditch, which peters out to the south. The bank measures up to 4 metres wide and 2 metres high, whilst the outer ditch is up to 5 metres wide and 1 metres deep. The partially enclosed area measures up to 100 metres long from south-west to north-east by 55 metres wide from north-west to south-east. The enclosure is crossed by a later forest track, which cuts across the earthwork. The monument probably represents an unfinished enclosure. A promontary fort, 570 metres to the north, and another enclosure 500 metres to the north-west may be associated with this monument and with what would have been a strategically important location in the later prehistoric period. Despite some disturbance through forestry activities and the laying of a track, the partial defended settlement survives comparatively well. It will contain both archaeological and environmental information relating to the construction and use of the monument and its landscape context. It is likely to be an unusual example of an unfinished enclosure.

English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009: South West, 119 (Report - non-specific). SDV342694.

Generally satisfactory but with significant localised problems. Principal vulnerability scrub and tree growth.

Ordnance Survey, 2009, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV341569.

English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010: South West, 111 (Report - non-specific). SDV344777.

English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011: South West, 117 (Report - non-specific). SDV355280.

Generally satisfactory but with significant localised problems. Stable. Principal vulnerability scrub and tree growth.

Houghton, P., 2015, An Archaeological and Historical Report on The Upper Tamar Valley including Excavations at Lamerhooe Volume One, 49-50, 56-59, fig 21, map 11-13 (Report - Assessment). SDV363240.

Bank and ditch of a fort that may be contemporary with Castle Head 500m to the north-east. The monument survives fairly well although there has been some modern forestry disturbance including the laying of a forest track. The bank measures around 4m wide and 2m high with a ditch 5m wide and 1m deep. The enclosure measures 100m (south-west to north-east) and 55m (north-west to south-east). Comparison made with Cornish 'rounds', although it is almost twice as large as the site at Trethurgy. The siting of this monument makes it less easily defendable than Castle Head; it is on low lying ground. Cites English Heritage suggestion that it may be unfinished due to part of the boundary bank on the south side is missing (2014).

Hegarty, C., Houghton, E., Knight, S. and Sims, R., 2020-2021, Tamar/Lidar; A Single Source Approach to Landscape Survey and Socially Distanced Community Archaeology Area 1 (AI&M project) (Interpretation). SDV363945.

Two sections of semi-circular banks with flanking ditches are visible as subtle earthworks on visualisations derived from lidar data captured in 2005 in Dunterue Wood.
The banks have been transcribed as part of the Tamar Valley NMP and have not been re-transcribed due to the lack of clarity in the lidar data caused by woodland cover, which does not contribute additional information.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6911 - Tamar Valley National Mapping Programme
• EDV8345 - Tamar/Lidar; A Single Source Approach to Landscape Survey and Socially Distanced Community Archaeology Area 1 (AI&M) (Ref: ACD2380)

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.