a charity registered in England & Wales, no  1163854.

Reports from our geophysical surveys, excavations, and other research, will be posted as downloadable pdfs on this page.

The RRRA has a policy of ensuring that our fieldwork and research is conducted almost entirely by our membership and other volunteers, many of whom are entirely new to archaeology. At the same time, we want our work to be carried out to an exceptionally high standard.

We engage a professional archaeologist, James Lyall, to mentor and train our volunteers, not only to learn how to conduct the fieldwork, but also how to record the results, interpret them, and ultimately write up the reports. The process has been a steep learning curve, both for the volunteers and those training and guiding them, and not surprisingly it has taken some considerable time (over two years) to reach the point where, with some guidance, those volunteers can produce reports of the standard we require. The time and effort put in by some of our members has been exemplary, and that dedication is now paying off with the first reports starting to be produced.

From summer 2021, reports should start to appear on this page on a regular basis.

Geophysical Survey Reports

SMX 001, 2021:  Fluxgate Gradiometer Survey: Land West of Rudgate, Newton Kyme, North Yorkshire

In 2018/19, a fluxgate magnetometry survey (23 ha) was carried out to the west of the modern road/track known as Rudgate, immediately to the south of the River Wharfe and west of the Roman fort site at Newton Kyme. No reliable anomalies which can be attributed to the Roman road designated as RR280 (Margary, 1973, p. 417) were found, however, the remnants of two possible temporary camps extending to the west of the Roman fort were discovered. Additionally, a number of what appear to be non-military enclosures were found bordering the flood plain of the River Wharfe at the northern edge of the surveyed area.

SMX 006, 2023:  Fluxgate Gradiometer Surveys: Low Learchild Roman Fort & the junction of RR88 & RR87, Northumberland

, Newton Kyme, Northumberland

Gradiometer surveys were carried out at the poorly understood Roman fort at Low Learchild and at the  supposed junction of the Devil’s Causeway with the Roman road from High Rochester some 700m to the west. The surveys were carried out in August 2022 by volunteers from the RRRA, the Holystone History and Archaeology Group, and others from the local community. They were part of a major RRRA project to examine the Devil’s Causeway and the sites along it and confirmed the presence of two successive Roman forts, not quite as proposed by Sir Ian Richmond. The road junction survey found possible evidence of the Devil’s Causeway, but the junction is now thought to be further north than previously claimed.