Description and History of Site:-
West Harts Hill is one of the (slightly) higher parts of the heather-covered Embsay Moor, based on Millstone Grit beds. The area is pockmarked with shallow delphs and low vegetated piles of discarded stone. Various outcrops were dug for dimension stone and millstone/grindstone roughouts, and tooling marks can be seen across the moor, and on Fairies Chest.

There are two smithies and several small (diameter less than 1m) roughouts - most likely edge runners rather than millstones as such. There are also abandoned stone trough, lintel and gatepost roughouts.

Leading off the moor to the south is a complex of sledways showing as holloways. It is known that dimension stone was sourced from Embsay Moor for work on Skipton Castle in the early 14th century and in 1437 when it was called 'Staynrig' which is now West Harts Hill. The pockmarking is a typical hills and hollows quarried landscape dating back to the medieval period.

Nothing is recorded for production of edge runners or millstones, however.

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Key Words :- millstone production sites

Viewing the Site :- Open Access land

Address :- Embsay, Skipton, North Yorkshire
Grid Ref :- SD 993 558
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.998234 , Long -2.012167
Local Authority :- Craven District Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Site extant - Protected status unknown
Site Condition :- Earthworks only
Site Dates :- unknown - unknown
Record Date :- 14 December 2022

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © David Johnson