Carl Wark

The cliffs and embankment form an enclosure that has been interpreted as an Iron Age hill fort, though the date of construction and purpose of the fortifications remains unknown.

The southern edge of the enclosure consists of large earth-fast boulders that have been reinforced with millstone grit blocks, forming a wall 2–2.5 metres (6.6–8.2 ft) high.

[14] There is no evidence of settlement within the enclosure so it is unlikely that the site was used for a continuously occupied fort; it may have been used as a place of refuge for a population living in the surrounding area or it may have had some ceremonial purpose.

He thought that it was built by the British Celtic peoples, and surmised that "it is natural to imagine, from the many sacred erections, that this place must have been intended for holy uses, or a court of justice".

[15] In 1861 historian John Gardner Wilkinson wrote that the site "bears the marked characteristics of an ancient British [Iron Age] fort",[16] whilst antiquarian and barrow-digger Thomas Bateman stated that he thought the encampment had been set up as a defence against Constantine the Great during the Roman rule of Britain.

[17] Isaac Chalkley Gould also dismissed Rooke's idea that the enclosure had a sacred use, writing that it may have been used as a temporary fortified camp or refuge.

[19] Some more recent historians agree with the view that the fortifications date from 'the Romano-British period at the start of the Dark Ages, maybe about 500 AD'.

[20] Norman Price (1953) described Carl Wark as the site of a pre-Roman Celtic British encampment, later used for defence in the 6th century by Arthurian knight Sir Lamoracke, who he states was also known as Llywarch.