Castle Dykes Henge
DatedEst. 3600–1800 BCE
Photo Chris Heaton · CC BY-SA 2.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
What the sources say
Castle Dykes Henge is a Class I Neolithic henge earthwork in the Yorkshire Dales National Park in North Yorkshire, England, situated between the villages of Aysgarth and Thornton Rust. It consists of a roughly circular bank approximately 87 yards (80 m) in diameter with an internal ditch.
It is reported that excavation work took place in 1908, though there is little physical evidence of this as the henge appears to be mostly intact. In 2015 the Royal Archaeological Institute awarded a research grant for a survey of the site and palaeoenvironmental sampling.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
The full article
Castle Dykes Henge: the whole story
In briefSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Castle Dykes HengeCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Castle Dykes HengeCC BY-SA 4.0
Castle Dykes Henge is a Class I Neolithic henge earthwork in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, North Yorkshire, England. It lies between the villages of Aysgarth and Thornton Rust. The monument is a henge with stone settings, dated by typological estimate to 3600 BCE to 1800 BCE.
The henge consists of a roughly circular bank approximately 87 yards (80 m) in diameter, with an internal ditch. It appears to be mostly intact. The site is described as a henge with stone settings, although the surviving physical features noted are the bank and ditch.
Excavation work is reported to have taken place in 1908, though little physical evidence of this remains. In 2015, the Royal Archaeological Institute awarded a research grant for a survey of the site and palaeoenvironmental sampling. No further details of the excavation or later research are given.
Henges of this kind generally have a roughly circular or oval bank with an internal ditch around a central flat area more than 20 metres across. Because the ditch lies inside the bank, they were not built for defence. They may contain ritual structures such as stone circles or timber settings, but little evidence of occupation is usually found inside.
How this page was madeSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Castle Dykes HengeCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Castle Dykes HengeCC BY-SA 4.0
The summary at the top of this page was written by MiniMax-M3 (2026-11-08) from the cited Wikipedia article “Castle Dykes Henge”. The numbers in it were checked automatically against the source text. The rest of the page is the article itself, the structured records and computed distances.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Henges with stone settings
A henge is a Neolithic earthwork, typically a roughly circular or oval bank with an internal ditch around a central flat area more than 20 metres across. The ditch lies inside the bank, so henges cannot have been built for defence. There is typically little evidence of occupation inside a henge, though they may contain ritual structures such as stone circles or timber settings. The word is taken from Stonehenge, which is not a true henge, because its ditch lies outside its bank.
Many British henges have stone settings. Avebury in Wiltshire is a henge containing three stone circles, built over several hundred years in the third millennium BCE. In Orkney the Standing Stones of Stenness, sited on a promontory between two lochs, may be the oldest henge site in the British Isles, and the Ring of Brodgar, a henge and stone circle, stands on a narrow isthmus between the same lochs; both are part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site. In Derbyshire, Arbor Low is a henge with an egg-shaped circle of about 50 limestone blocks, one partly upright and the rest lying flat. In Cumbria, Mayburgh Henge is a large bank on a knoll close to a second henge, King Arthur's Round Table. In Yorkshire the Thornborough Henges are three aligned henges on a plateau above the River Ure, dated between 3500 and 2500 BCE and called the Stonehenge of the North. At Durrington Walls, 3.2 kilometres north-east of Stonehenge, a large Neolithic settlement preceded the henge.
Stone settings inside a henge can be earlier or later than the bank, so a henge and its stones are dated separately.
When visiting, walk the bank to get the sense of the circle, and see how the entrance gaps line up with the landscape.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Henge, Wikipedia: Stonehenge, Wikipedia: Avebury, Wikipedia: Thornborough Henges, Wikipedia: Standing Stones of Stenness, Wikipedia: Ring of Brodgar · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
Photographs
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 3600–1800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypological estimate, not a date for this site: a henge with stones in the British Isles is normally dated between 3600 BCE and 1800 BCE (Atlas typological table).Source for this date
Measured facts
- Classification
- Class I Neolithic henge earthworkSource: Classification
- Bank diameter
- approximately 80mSource: Bank diameter
- Internal feature
- ditchSource: Internal feature
- Reported excavation
- 1908Source: Reported excavation
- Research grant
- 2015, for survey and palaeoenvironmental samplingSource: Research grant
- Heritage designation
- scheduled monumentSource: Heritage designation
Where it stands
United Kingdom
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 54°16′52″ N, 2°01′43″ WFor a GPS or map app: 54.28120, -2.02867
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
- Stone circleOx Close small stone circle, Nab End3200–2500 BCE
Cairn on Addlebrough Hill including cup marked boulders.4000–800 BCE- Stone circleStone circle north east of Thackthwaite Beck3200–2500 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Cairn on Green Scar, 470m SE of New Bridge4000–800 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Cairn 255m south west of Moor House Farm4000–800 BCE
Cairn on scar above Hubberholme, 380m south east of Slades Swallow Hole4000–800 BCE
Yockenthwaite small stone circle3200–2500 BCE
Maiden Castle4000–800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q17646263wikidata.org
- 02Wikipedia (en)en.wikipedia.org
Image files
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Ox Close small stone circle, Nab End3.0 km N
- Cairn on Addlebrough Hill including cup marked boulders.3.7 km W
- Stone circle north east of Thackthwaite Beck3.9 km N
- Cairn on Green Scar, 470m SE of New Bridge7.9 km W
- Cairn 255m south west of Moor House Farm9.2 km E
- Cairn on scar above Hubberholme, 380m south east of Slades Swallow Hole9.9 km SW
- Yockenthwaite small stone circle11 km SW
- Maiden Castle12 km N
- Bowl barrow 120m north of Tor Dike on Little Hunters Sleets12 km S
- Embanked small stone circle at Harker Mires on Harkerside Moor12 km NE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Text from the Wikipedia article "Castle Dykes Henge" (English), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (English): Castle Dykes HengeCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q17646263CC0