Twenty years before the foundation of SWAAG, in the fields to the east of Healaugh village and above the Reeth road, several ancient settlement sites were identified during the wider studies of the Swaledale Ancient Land Boundaries project (see Coaxial Field Systems), directed by Tim Laurie (later to become SWAAG president) jointly with Dr Andrew Fleming, then of Sheffield University.
It was noted that lynchet field boundaries abutted but did not cross settlement platforms and enclosures, pointing to a Late Iron Age origin of the field system. The clarity of the remains prompted Andrew Fleming to lead an excavation of one of three roundhouse platforms clustered on part of the site.
The excavation was conducted over three seasons in 1988, 89, and 90. In addition to exposing the house platform, there were also selected trenches through the enclosure wall and eastern lynchet at Healaugh. No full report on the excavations has been published, but the findings are discussed in several places.
An overview of the excavation results, including discussions on the wider field studies, can be seen in the SWAAG database PDF Settlements 2. Scroll to the last record (no. 1000, dated 2017, updated 2018). A duplicate entry, minus minor later changes, can be seen among the 50 records in the SWAAG database PDF Settlements 1 (record no. 410, dated 2012).
The excavations were also reported within the interim reports of the Swaledale Ancient Land Boundaries project, which can be seen here: Coaxial Field Systems, click on SWALB interim reports 5-7, dated 1988, 89, and 90.
Botanical remains excavated were analysed at the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, and the report was produced in September 2023. It can be read here: Botanical remains from Healaugh A, Swaledale, by Marijke Van der Veen.
