The study area (SE1565-4600) encompasses the lower reaches of the Rivers Ure and Swale. It extends from their confluence at Boroughbridge as far northwards as the Swale’s descent from the Pennines (Fig. 1). It is this zone which is hereafter known as the Ure-Swale Catchment. The study area also incorporates the Catchment’s surrounding landscapes by way of comparison. To the west it includes part of the Yorkshire Dales and to the northeast the Hambleton Hills. The low-lying river valleys are the focus for extensive Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology, including the monument complexes at Thornborough, Hutton Moor/Cana Barn, Catterick and Boroughbridge. A significant number of small finds and more isolated features such as burial monuments are also known.

Its topography consists of the northern Vale of York, a gently undulating landscape between 20 and 50 metres OD (Fig 1c). There is a gradual downward slope from north to south. To the west the land rises to around 350 metres OD above Nidderdale and to the northeast to around 250 metres OD in the Hambleton Hills. The River Ure flows out of Wensleydale from west to southeast, whilst the Swale flows from north to southeast. The confluence of the two rivers is at Boroughbridge in the southeast corner of the study area. The study area’s topography creates a number of ‘zones of transition’, between upland and lowland, but also between the two rivers. Neolithic and Bronze Age communities may have placed great emphasis on such areas, as is demonstrated by other sites and landscapes across the British Isles. The large number of monuments clustered together in the Ure-Swale Catchment may reflect its general social significance.

The solid geology of the area is likely to have had little effect upon the original location and preservation of archaeology other than the possibility of different settlement and landuse patterns on the Limestone scar which forms the Yorkshire Dales and the more low-lying landscapes to the east. The drift geology is characterised mainly by fluvio-glacial gravel terracing around the rivers, with isolated pockets of till and peat formations. The soils are generally brown earths and sands, with gley and stagnogley soils around the periphery of the study area and peat formations in upland areas.