Guided tours offer window on the past

Visitors will have a chance to take guided tours and learn a little more about North Yorkshire’s Stone Age past. Archaeological investigations are underway at the now-vanished Lake Flixton in the Vale of Pickering where flint tools, bones and evidence of some of the last wild horses in the UK have been uncovered.

The guided tours on Saturday and Sunday will include tours of the dig site, landscape history tours and a chance to see some of the latest finds.

Nicky Milner, from the Department of Archaeology at the University of York, said: “The excavations are uncovering the remains of some of the first people to return to Britain after the end of the last Ice Age when rapid climate change resulted in rising temperatures and a more hospitable environment.”

Landscape history tours on Saturday will focus on the importance of the wetlands left behind by the ancient Lake Flixton. The tours, led by Tim Burkinshaw, wetland officer with the Cayton and Flixton Carrs Wetland Project, will discuss how the wetlands help to support local wildlife.

Flixton Island is near Star Carr, one of the most important Mesolithic sites in Europe where, in 2010, archaeologists uncovered Britain’s earliest surviving house dating back to 9,000 BC.

The open weekend tours take place from 10am to 4pm. The site entrance is located in North Street, Flixton, YO11 3UA. A map is provided on the website: www.starcarr.com