500,000-8500 BC Palaeolithic

Palaeolithic sites are very rare in northern England. This is because the area has been covered by ice several times, and the mountains and hilltops have been severely eroded. However, occasional surface finds show that people were once here; a large handaxe from Knutsford in Cheshire almost certainly dates to the Lower Palaeolithic (about 500,000-250,000 years ago). The most northerly handaxe found is at Huntow near Bridlington in East Yorkshire.

There is better evidence of human occupation at the end of the last Ice Age, at sites such as Victoria Cave in North Yorkshire and Kirkhead Cavern in Cumbria. From Victoria Cave three tools, including a harpoon made from reindeer antler, have been radiocarbon-dated to this period. Flint tools from Kirkhead Cavern include pieces probably used as the barbs and points for spears or arrowheads.

From High Furlong in Lancashire a skeleton of an elk (moose) was found. It died with two small barbed bone points imbedded in it. Death seems to have occurred in mid-winter.

So far there is no evidence to suggest that Britain was occupied further north during the Palaeolithic, but this may be because of a lack of preserved sites.