Farmstead, Rispain

Formerly considered as a probable medieval homestead, excavations between 1978 and 1981 showed it to be a bi-vallate (double-ditched) defended settlement or farmstead dating to the Late Iron Age. There is no indication of the outer ditch on the ground, it was traced by excavation in 1901.   Within the interior the later excavations found a roundhouse, 14m in diameter. A metalled road leading from two large stone-packed post-holes set in a stone-filled slot across the entrance seems to run towards the centre of the enclosure. Carbonised seeds, some animal bones, much cremated human bone and charcoal were also found, and three radiocarbon dates of the late Iron Age were obtained from charcoal recovered from the 1978 excavation.