The first recorded excavations of the structure are in the Victorian era: after performing some preliminary clearing of a part of the Wheeldale Moor section of the causeway in the 1890s, Wheeldale Lodge gamekeeper James PattersonϠ persuaded the Office of Works (now the Department of the Environment) in 1912 to transfer into its stewardship the full 1 miles stretch of the causeway over Wheeldale Moor.Ϊ Working alongside Oxley Grabham from the York Museum, members of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society and several private individuals, Patterson cleared and excavated the adopted stretch of causeway between 1910 and 1920.ή A further section, near Grosmont Priory, was excavated by Hayes between 1936 and 1939.