Tuesday 5 June 2012

Peak District Jubilations - Haggar Tor and Carl Wark hillfort

As part of the long weekend of Jubilee celebrations, my wife and I decided to go and enjoy some natural beauty with a day of hiking in the Peak District (a follow up to our trip a few weeks ago to Eyam).

We went to one of the better known parts of the Peaks - Higger Tor and the nearby possible hillfort site known as Carl Wark.

Carl Wark is an interesting site - a rocky promontory, naturally defended on three sides.  Although rightly protected as a scheduled ancient monument, evidence for the date and use of the site are slim.  Bronze Age artefacts have been found close by, and the general consensus is that the site was a defensive site in the late Bronze and Iron Ages, though perhaps not a continually occupied hilltop settlement in the way that more famous hillforts from southern Britain such as Maiden Castle were.  Excavations have also suggested use as far apart as the Neolithic and Medieval periods, though, so the story of the use of this small defensive site is far from simple.  The quantity of other prehistoric monuments such as hillforts and barrows in the area suggest that this was far from a bleak outpost in prehistory.

Away from the historic environment, the walk also saw a close encounter with a hare, which we inadvertently walked too close to in some deeper grass.  As the startled hare suddenly bolted out at us from only 6 inches away it was harder to say who was the most shocked!

The images below are some of the snaps I took during our wanderings.











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