A look at the history of Fort Gregory, Grassington, with Dr Emma Wells

Fort Gregory is an ancient earthwork set within Grass Wood, near Grassington in Upper Wharfedale, North Yorkshire. Grass Wood is one of the larger stretches of ancient ash woodland in the Yorkshire Dales, sitting on limestone terraces above the River Wharfe. The terrain includes knolls and gentle ridges with views across Wharfedale.

Fort Gregory is perched on one of these knolls. It comprises a small hilltop enclosure that would have been prominent in the landscape. From the path, it appears modest—a ring of broken stone and an earthen bank. It is not a great hillfort in scale, but rather what might be described as a small Iron-Age defended enclosure: a roughly circular or oval bank (or rampart) with traces of ditching in places. The defences would have been earthen banks, likely topped with wooden fences or palisades, whilst the natural slope of the hill helped with defence on some sides.

The site was partially investigated in the 1890s by Ernest Speight and the Upper Wharfedale Exploration Committee; their limited excavations produced only fragments—coarse pottery sherds and burnt stones—enough to confirm prehistoric occupation but not to provide precise, modern radiocarbon dates.

The minor size and function of Fort Gregory set it apart from the larger, multi-banked hillforts and it appears to have been more suitable as a protective habitat for small communities, a cluster of huts or a defended farmstead, or as a refuge in times of threat. It very likely served such purposes more so than the several hectares of regional strongholds. In upland Wharfedale, such enclosures probably combined practical shelter, storage and livestock protection with a role in signalling local territory and community identity within Brigantian lands. They may also have played a role in ritual or symbolic display, marking territorial boundaries or as visible markers in the landscape.

Today, the site is protected as a scheduled monument.

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Books by Dr Emma Wells