Nunwick Henge

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A henge at Nunwick visible both as a low bank and shallow internal ditch and as a cropmark. A berm was originally present between ditch and bank. Maximum external diameter is circa 210 metres. There are two opposed entrances visible on the north and south sides. Limited excavation was undertaken in 1961 by DP Dymond across the ditch and bank in the north-north-west sector. Within the ditch fill was a circular spread of burnt material, including many split and reddened stones. However, no artefacts or any other dating evidence were recovered. The site is scheduled. Three worked flints, two waste flakes and a scraper, all now in Yorkshire Museum, were found in the plough soil in the field to the southwest. This monument is visible as cropmarks and low Earthworks on historic and recent air photos and on LiDAR-derived images.

Images and text supplied by  Tony Hunt, YAAMAPPING

Nunwick Henge

Nunwick Henge lies on a low gravel terrace about 300 m north of the hamlet of Nunwick, Hutton Conyers, beside the River Ure. It is a sub-circular Earthwork a little over 200 m across, whose ditch lies inside its bank— the defining trait of a Class II henge. Ploughing has lowered both features to shallow undulations, but from the air a clean cropmark still shows the bank, a five-metre berm, the ditch and opposed entrances facing almost due north and south. (historicengland.org.uk)

Intrusive Archaeology

The only intrusive work was a narrow trench dug in 1961 by D. P. Dymond across the north-west circuit. That section recorded a V-shaped ditch 4 m deep and about 9 m wide, its lower fills streaked with charcoal and littered with cracked, reddened cobbles—evidence of repeated burning on or near the henge bank. No pottery or bone survived the acidic gravel, but pollen in the primary silts suggested an open grassland setting, consistent with late Neolithic or very early Bronze-Age construction.

Relationship with other henges in the area

Although smaller than the great Thornborough henges six kilometres to the north-west, Nunwick aligns on the same north-south axis and is often described as the southern element of a longer “processional” line that begins at the Devil’s Arrows standing-stones near Boroughbridge, runs through Nunwick and culminates at Thornborough. Aerial mapping and GIS sight-line studies support the idea that the three groups were laid out in relation to one another across the Vale of Mowbray. (yaamapping.co.uk, en.wikipedia.org)

Limited Modern Attention

Modern attention has been limited to remote-sensing and condition surveys. Historic England lists the monument as at risk because annual ploughing is nibbling the inner edge of the bank, but the overall plan remains legible and geophysics confirms that both entrances and the complete ditch circuit survive below top-soil. No major excavation has yet been proposed, so basic questions—precise dating, evidence for timber settings or internal structures, and the role the burnt stones played in henge ceremonies—are still open. Even so, the cropmark, the 1961 trench data and the clear landscape relationship with Thornborough together make Nunwick one of the key outliers in Yorkshire’s remarkable henge complex. (historicengland.org.uk, heritagegateway.org.uk)