Lynchets look like large steps cut into a field on a hill slope. They are caused when ploughing moves soil downhill, which then piles up against a field boundary such as a wall or hedge. Sometimes they may even have been built deliberately to form flat areas which are easier to farm.

Lynchets are clear in Iron Age square “celtic” fields and in long rectangular fields, laid out on sloping terrain in post-Roman and medieval times as so called “strip-lynchets”.  Modern ploughing has destroyed many lynchets, but they can still often be seen in upland areas where crops are no longer grown.

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