No mound, no hollow, no trace above the grass. Just soil, and then, a few centimetres down, evidence of ancient burning.

The site came to light during test trenching carried out under licence no. 20E0489, in areas earmarked as spoil deposition zones for works along the R556 Dale Road. What was found is classified as a burnt spread, a type of prehistoric deposit associated with intensive burning, typically of stone, which was heated and used, most often for cooking or bathing, before being discarded in growing mounds or spreads of cracked, blackened material. The burnt stone here covered an area of roughly 20 metres north-west to south-east and up to 10 metres across, reaching a maximum depth of just 15 centimetres. It sat on dry ground, approximately 100 metres east of a large wet area now planted with forestry. Notably, no trough was identified at this location; troughs, usually timber-lined or stone-built, are the vessel most commonly associated with burnt stone sites and their absence here leaves the exact function of this particular spread open to interpretation.