'Wade’s Causeway: A road to nowhere?'

The linear feature which crosses Wheeldale Moor, North Yorkshire, has long been promoted as an exemplar of a Roman road surviving untrammelled by turnpike or tarmac. As such, it has been in Guardianship for over a century. Considered since it was discovered in the 18th century to be part of a Roman road which extended from the fort at Malton to somewhere in the vicinity of Whitby by way of Cawthorn Camps and Lease Rigg Roman fort, there has been little critical review of the evidence. Fenton’s slightly exasperated comment, applied to another linear feature, far distant, holds equally good here: ‘ascribed like all old roads and dykes to the Romans or the Flemings, let them take what direction they may…’ (Fenton 1811, 131). There are questions still to be asked about Wade’s Causeway: ‘What is its route’ and ‘Is it Roman?’ might be a good start, ‘Is it a road?’ may be even more to the point.