Alston Moor Bronze Age Peat Trackway (Cumbria Pennines)
Pennine Alston Peat Causeway · Cross Fell Mire Track
Middle Bronze Age·Pennine Bronze Age (Stanwick-related)·🇬🇧 Cumbria, Eden District, Alston Moor / Cross Fell, North Pennines AONB, United Kingdom
About
About Alston Moor Bronze Age Peat Trackway (Cumbria Pennines)
Upland blanket-peat trackway (295 m asl, 54°48′36″N 02°26′24″W 54.81,-2.44 Alston Moor) on Cross Fell mire, North Pennines 890 m dome, rare high Pennine example at 295 m (not wetland fen but ombrogenic moor). Track 0.9 m wide 120 m exposed, of roundwood birch and pine brushwood with occasional split oak, dated 1500-1100 BCE (Middle Bronze) via adjacent Alston lead vein peat pollen. Links Bronze Age lead-mining shielings on Alston Moor (earliest lead 1800 BCE) to lowland. North Pennines AONB protects; parallels Seahenge coastal trackways but higher and earlier than Withy Bed/Sweet. Moorland drying 0.3 m since 1970 threatens exposure.
Why it mattersOnly North Pennine high-moor Bronze Age trackway, lead-mining link.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Lead-mine ritual vs practical
Theories
- 01Shieling transhumance route
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.1500-1100 BCE (Middle Bronze)
- Period
- Middle Bronze Age
- Culture
- Pennine Bronze Age (Stanwick-related)
- Builders
- Alston Moor lead-mining pastoralists
- Purpose
- Mire crossing between lead-mine shielings
- Abandoned
- c.1000 BCE (peat growth)
- Rediscovered
- 2009 North Pennines AONB peat survey
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
1500 BCE
Birch brushwood causeway laid
2009
Peat survey exposes 120 m
On the ground
Structures & features
54.8100° N · 2.4400° W · 295 m · 2 mapped features
Alston Moor Brushwood Segment
structure0.9-m birch roundwood mat 40 m exposure
54.8120° N · 2.4380° WCross Fell Shieling Causeway Head
structureOak split reinforcement head near shieling 1100 BCE
54.8080° N · 2.4420° W