406 
THE SO-CALLED BRITISH HABITATIONS ON DANBY NORTH MOOR. 
BY J. R. MORTIMER. 
{Read July 15th, 1898.) 
These lines of excavations are the most regular in size and 
arrangement of any I am acquainted with, and, reveiwed as a 
whole, they seem to have a greater claim to be the remains of 
pit-dwellings than any other group which has come under my 
observation. 
Nevertheless, the application of the pick and the shovel is 
the only reliable means likely to determine their original use. 
The first published description of this and other neighbour- 
ing groups of pits is by Dr. Young, in 1817,"''' of which the 
following is an abstract : — 
"These three clusters of pits have all the same form and 
appearance, but other three have been discovered in the district, 
differing from them very materially. The most singular is on Danby 
Moor, between Danby Beacon and Waj^ley. Here the pits are also 
round, but, instead of being scattered about irregularly, they 
are arranged in two parallel straight lines; and the earth dug 
out of the pits at their formation, instead of forming a border 
round each pit, has been taken to form a wall or a fence on the 
outside of the lines, so that two walls run parallel to the two 
rows of pits throughout their whole length, inclosing the pits 
between them. The pits are not placed in the zigzag form, but 
opposite each other ; and while the outer margin of each row 
is close to the vallum (i.e., bank) on the outside of it, there is 
a vacant space between the rows. These double lines of cavities, 
with their enclosing walls, are not all in one spot, in the same 
continued lines, but are found partly on one side of a hollow or 
valley, with a stream running through it, and partly on the other. 
The stream runs from south to north, or rather from south-west 
Young's History of Whitby, Vol. II, p. 672. 
