The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites
Richard Stillwell, William L. MacDonald, Marian Holland McAllister, Stillwell, Richard, MacDonald, William L., McAlister, Marian Holland, Ed.

SCARBOROUGH Yorkshire, England.

Excavation on the N cliff has revealed successive settlements: an Iron Age village, a Roman signal station, and a mediaeval castle and chapel. The signal station is well preserved except for some coastal erosion and damage caused by later building. It is of the normal 4th c. type, a rectangular enclosure with a wall surrounding it, a central stone tower, and a well. The coins found date from as late as Arcadius. The pottery is of the handmade signal station type common in the last 50 years of Roman rule in Britain. The purpose of the tower, one of a chain from the Tees to the Wash, was to signal to the Roman fleet at sea, the Classis Britannica, about the presence of Saxon pirates.

G. F. WILMOT