Tor Dike linear earthwork

The Tor Dike is a surviving stretch of a 2-kilometre linear earthwork guarding the entrance to Coverdale from Upper Wharfedale. It lies east of Starbotton in North Yorkshire, running across limestone uplands where medieval packhorse routes once passed. The work consists mainly of a deep trench cut straight down into the rock, backed by an earthen rampart about 1.8 metres high. Where the original entrance stood, gaps were left in both rampart and ditch. Archaeologists have noted small contemporary enclosures beside the dike and fragments of round Iron Age huts nearby. Other stone-lined pits cut into the ditch appear to belong to a later period, perhaps medieval or post-medieval. These features show how the site continued to be used long after its first construction. The limestone bedrock preserves sharp edges on the trench sides, making the earthwork’s original form still clear. Visitors walk along the grassy rampart and peer down the steep-sided trench, imagining Iron Age travellers passing through the entrance gaps. From the dike the moorland stretches away towards Coverdale’s green valleys. A single standing stone, the Hunters Stone, stands close by in the valley, marking another point of ancient significance.