Archaeological investigations
Prior to the work undertaken by Longstone Local History
Group and Archaeological Research Services Ltd, three main episodes
of archaeological intervention have been recorded at the site
of Fin Cop, though it is possible that further small scale investigations
have taken place and remain unrecorded. The first antiquarian
excavation recorded was that of Hayman Rooke in 1795,
when the renowned antiquarian excavated a ‘bowl barrow’ or cairn. Rooke undertook the excavation
when he heard that a tenant farmer was going to destroy the barrow
for limestone. He records that the barrow was originally one hundred
and sixty one feet in circumference (making it approximately 15.6m
diameter), and rose to a considerable height, showing that the
cairns within the hillfort were a prominent feature.
The second recorded episode of intervention was in
the early 20th century by Major T. Harris. Harris was a local antiquarian
and he excavated a barrow on the southern shoudler of
Fin Cop, discovering over 30 human burials. Unfortunately
there is no fully published account of this excavation available,
with the only published report having appeared in the High Peak
News in 1925.
The only modern archaeological intervention to have taken place
was a small evaluation trench by Wilson and English (1993), and was situated
across a suspect outer bank of the main enclosure further downslope from the recent work.
The archaeological reports and leaflet produced by Archaeological Research
Services Ltd are available for download below. Each report is
in PDF format, click the link to open (opens in a new browser
window) or right-click the link and choose ‘save as’
to download to your computer.
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