Sewingshields Crag from the West. From a pen and ink drawing by Hon. W J James in Spain (1822)
I have just had the honour to help with a field archaeology survey of land north of Hadrian's Wall at Sewingshields over four days in March. I was employed as a volunteer with the Tynedale Archaeology Group. During our recording of several stack stands (used to store winter fodder), old field boundaries and occasional settlements, I became acquainted with the Black Dyke, a long linear earthwork that tracks some distance through Northumberland, something I had only before seen on maps.
There is another, better known long earthwork, the Devil's Causeway, which can also be traced through the county. This, however, is actually a Roman road. It branches off Dere Street (the modern A68) where it crosses the Military Road at Port Gate, north of Corbridge, and runs in long straight lines north to the mouth of the River Tweed at Berwick.
The Black Dyke is one of the mysteries of Northumberland. It is a linear earthwork consisting of an embankment with a ditch on its west side, both of variable size, and completely untraceable in some areas. A definitive description was presented to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne by George R B Spain in November 1921, and published in their journal, Archaeologia Aeliana, Ser.3, Vol.19, p.121-168 (1922).
The Black Dyke followed by modern boundary wall. View south to Queen's Crags. Photo A Curtis (2014).
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