Blog Archives - Heddon-on-the-Wall Local History Society

Roman temporary camp at Bagraw

30/1/2026

LIDAR (DSM, 1m) copyright Environment Agency (2022) - enhanced for archaeology.

Another Roman temporary (or marching) camp along Dere Street at Bagraw in Redesdale, Northumberland.

The camp is elongated from NW to SE and has been either extended or reduced in size at some time. It is squeezed onto a limited space of flat land with its W side closely parallel to the Dere Street Roman Road, and its E side above the Bagraw Burn. The camp has been cut by the modern road (A68), here taking a separate line to the Romans, although both headed towards the Scottish Border north of the River Rede (bottom left), crosssed by both roads not far to the south. The NE side of the camp is overlaid by a forested enclosure (now partly clear-felled). LIDAR reveals one of the internal roads through the northern section of the camp between its original opposing N & S gates, demonstrating its assymetric and unusual construction.

Scheduled Monument: 1006506

K2P: N8104

Iron Age enclosed settlements at Trows Law & Ward Law, Cheviot Hills

30/1/2026

Iron Age (& R-B) enclosed settlements at Trows Law & Ward Law, Cheviot Hills, Northumberland, UK.
LIDAR (DSM, 1m) copyright Environment Agency (2022) - enhanced for archaeology.
Scheduled Monuments protected by law:
1008840
1008841

LIDAR (DSM, 1m) copyright Environment Agency (2022) - enhanced for archaeology.

Bronze Age settlement S of Yevering Bell

30/1/2026

Bronze Age settlement of eight or more unenclosed hut circles among field clearance banks and clearance cairns, S of Yeavering Bell, Cheviot Hills, Northumberland, UK.

LIDAR (DSM, 1m) copyright Environment Agency (2022) - enhanced for archaeology.

WW1 practice trenches, Silloans

30/1/2026

World War I practice trenches, Silloans on the Otterburn Ranges, Northumberland.

"Their primary purpose was to train infantry companies in the routine of defence, control of overhead artillery fire and relief in the line during World War I. The trenches, which face northwards, are visible as a series of earthworks covering an area of about 240m north west to south east by 150m north east to south west. The plan of the trenches, which is best appreciated from the air, includes a front line fire trench, a support, or reserve, line and associated communications trenches.

The front line, which lies at the northern extremity of the complex, is visible as a fire trench of `bastion trace' or diamond-shape layout with four interlinked bastions. Each bastion has a parados or mound of earth to the rear, offering protection against reverse fire and the back burst of high explosive shells. Communication trenches link the bastions and run behind the parados in each case, turning them into isolated mounds up to 1.5m high. A support or reserve line lies between 60m and 70m to the south of the front line, connected to it by a further set of three similar bastions each with an isolated parados. The form of the reserve line is of `square trace' or fire trench with traverses. Communication trenches with a zigzag profile run southwards from the east and west ends of the reserve line for 80m and 90m respectively at which point they converge. From this point further short lengths of trench of a similar form continue to the south and east."

Scheduled Monument protected by law: 1021025

Archaeology in Northumberland, volume 14 (2004)

Pallisaded settlement, Biddlestone

30/1/2026

Pallisaded settlement, field system and enclosure N of Harden Quarry, Biddlestone, Northumberland.

A palisaded hilltop enclosure is a small defended site of domestic function dating to the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age (c.550-440 BC). Their distribution is largely restricted to NE England, the Borders and southern Scotland. They are generally located on spurs, promontories or hilltops covering areas of less then 0.4ha. The boundaries of these sites are marked by single or double rock-cut trenches which originally formed the settings for substantial palisades. Remains of circular buildings are found within the palisaded areas, along with evidence for fenced stock enclosures.

Scheduled Monument protected by law: 1008562

K2P: N1129

The living Rock Art landscape of Northumberland and Durham

30/1/2026

Archaeology in NORTHUMBERLAND VOLUME 15: 2005

Settlement S of Lamb Hill, Cheviot Hills

30/1/2026

Abandoned settlement S of Lamb Hill, 430m above sea level in the Cheviot Hills, Northumberland,

"Situated on a gentle S facing slope in open moorland, now boggy and peat-laden, is a group of 6 rectangular steadings and a number of associated enclosures representing the remains of an upland settlement of the medieval or post-medieval period. The site is overgrown with tussockgrass, and this has obscured details of the structures, notably the steadings which have been reduced to their footings, and survive merely as banks up to 2.0m wide and 0.4m max internal height. Very little stone, and no wall faces are exposed which may indicate that they were not wholly stone-built."

Harbottle Hill millstone quarry

30/1/2026

Harbottle Hill millstone quarries, Northumberland.

Report from Oxford Archaeology North (June 2000)

LIDAR (DSM, 1m) - copyright Environment Agency (2022).

Holloways of Drove Road SW of Holystone

30/1/2026

Holloways of Drove Road SW of Holystone, Northumberland.

The fine black lines show the many braided individual trackways etched into the ground surface especially on steep sections of the route followed by drovers taking cattle from Scotland to markets in England. Next stop south would have been Elsdon, avoiding valley roads and farmland.

Carlton, R. J. (2004). Holystone, Northumberland; An Archaeological and Historical Study of a Border Township. The Archaeological Practice.

View north-east over Daws Moss. Photo A Curtis (2019).

Temporary Roman Camp at North Yardhope

30/1/2026

Temporary Roman Camp at North Yardhope, Northumberland.

First discovered on air photographs in 1974. Just to the S of the camp and visible on LIDAR (diagonal from bottom left) lies the course of the Roman road linking High Rochester (Bremenium) on Dere Street with the Flavian fort at Low Learchild (?Alauna) on the Devil's Causeway.

K2P: https://keystothepast.info/.../results.../site-details/...

The Roman camp at Yardhope is a Scheduled Monument protected by law: https://historicengland.org.uk/.../the.../list-entry/1011415

There is a record of another narrow camp partly overlying this one, and a feature of the right size can be seen on the Google Earth photos from 2009. However, it only leaves a faint trace of a narrow ditch on LIDAR (among the modern ditches), and the zoomed out view of GE from the same year might suggest it is just a feature of heather management for shooting.

K2P: https://keystothepast.info/.../results.../site-details/...