Wade's Causeway

Wade's Causeway is a Roman road, or possibly a Neolithic structure, located in the North York Moors national park in North Yorkshire, England. Its origins, age, purpose and extent are subject to research and debate and have not been reliably established. It was excavated in mid-20th century and dated to the Roman period, but 21st century re-interpretations have suggested a possible Neolithic origin. The name may be used to refer specifically to a length of stone course just over 1 mile (1.6 km) long on Wheeldale Moor and protected as a scheduled monument. It may be also be applied more broadly to include an additional postulated extension of this structure, two sections of which are also scheduled monuments, and which extend to the north and south of Wheeldale for up to 25 miles (40 km). The visible course on Wheeldale Moor consists of an embankment of soil, peat, gravel and loose pebbles 2 feet 4 inches (0.7 m) in height and 13 to 23 feet (4 to 7 m) in width. The gently cambered embankment is capped with un-mortared and loosely abutted flagstones. Its original form is uncertain since it has been subjected to weathering and human damage. The structure has been the subject of local folklore for several hundred years and possibly for more than a millennium. Its construction was commonly attributed to a giant known as Wade, a figure from Germanic mythology. In the 1720s, the causeway was mentioned in a published text and as a result became more widely known for the first time. Within a few years, it became of interest to antiquarians, who visited the site and exchanged commentary on its probable historicity. They interpreted the structure as a causeway across marshy ground, attributing its construction to the Roman army, an explanation that remained largely unchallenged throughout the remainder of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The stretch of the causeway on Wheeldale Moor was cleared of vegetation and excavated in the early twentieth century by a local…