ARCHAEOLOGISTS from North Craven are using more than £25,000 in grant aid to run their first ever excavation.

The Ingleborough Archaeology Group secured £24,900 from the Local Heritage Initiative and a further £1,500 from the North Craven Heritage Trust to fund the explorations in a field near the start of Ingleton's Waterfalls Walk.

The three-week dig will study an area known in archaeological circles as the Ingleton Type Site.

There are extensive earthworks on the site and preliminary works with the group's geophysics equipment suggests there will be lots to discover beneath the grass.

The dig has already uncovered a whet stone, which would have been used for sharpening knives, and a piece of a pottery jug dated back to at least the 17th century.

Group chairman David Johnson said: "There's a lot under the ground in terms of lumps and bumps. We should come up with some good stuff.

"The geophysics suggest ironworks on site, including possibly a very early furnace for smelting iron, but we won't know anything until we start digging."

This is the first time that this kind of site has been excavated locally and the group will be helped by people from Oxford Archaeology North, based at Lancaster and Craven College.

"We are certainly the only amateur group in the last few years to have been given permission to do a dig in the national park," said Mr Johnson.

It is hoped that the excavation will answer some questions for local historians, who are curious about the nature of the workings on the site.

Opinions vary on the origins of the activity there. Some people think it might be medieval, but the majority believe it is evidence of Romano-British activity.

The Ingleborough Archaeology Group was formed around seven years ago and this is the first time it has done any practical work.

There will be three trenches being worked at any one time with around 60 people involved in total.

The group is holding an open day on Monday September 15 from 11am to 6pm, when members of the public can go along. School groups will also be looking around the site during the excavation.

Members are also going to publish a detailed academic paper, plus information for the general public and for schools once the dig is over, in conjunction with the national park authority.

Any finds will go to the Craven Museum, in Skipton.