Source/Archive record SEM8404 - An archaeological gradiometer and earth resistance survey: Land at Countisbury Castle, Wind Hill, Lynmouth, Devon

This survey was part of a programme of archaeological investigations at Countisbury Castle commissioned as part of the Unlocking Our Costal Heritage project. Countisbury Castle is an Iron Age promontory fort lies on a west-facing spur between the high sea cliff to the north and the steep sided East Lyn Valley to the south. A gradiometer survey was completed across the designated survey area and was followed by a resistance survey 0.5ha in extent, the areas chosen for the resistance survey being assessed as the most promising in terms of further understanding the likely archaeology. The magnetic and resistance contrasts across the survey areas were sufficient to be able to differentiate between anomalies representing possible archaeology and background responses. Fifty-three magnetic anomaly groups and fourteen resistance anomaly groups were identified as representing possible archaeological deposits or features. Of these anomaly groups, the majority are thought to relate to former cultivation with field boundaries, strip lynchets and remnant ploughing patterns being provisionally identified. Resistance anomaly groups 50, 51 and 52 in field 2 may represent a north-south trending archaeological feature at the western end of the promontory fort and further archaeological investigations may determine whether or not this potential deposit or structure is related to the promontory fort itself or past agricultural activities. Anomaly groups 15 and 16 which straddle the boundary between fields 4 and 6 seem to represent a sub-circular feature that is visible on Google Earth images. An archaeological origin is possible for such an anomaly group although a former quarry or natural feature cannot be ruled out. Further archaeological investigations are required if this is to be resolved. Magnetic anomaly groups 26, 42 and 43, and resistance anomaly groups 53, 54 and 55 hint at possible archaeological deposits or structures adjacent to the extant earthworks at the eastern end of the promontory fort.