Category: Cheviots - Heddon-on-the-Wall Local History Society

Chesters Burn, Alnham

10/2/2026

Chesters Burn, Alnham, Northumberland.

Oval sheepfold with entrance to S close to an unusual small rectangular ditch and bank earthwork (?large stack-stand) and, to the SW, the faint remains of small rectangular building of two-cells with a small attached yard (?shieling).

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

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

Deserted medieval village of Hartside, Ingram

7/2/2026

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

Deserted medieval village of Hartside, Ingram, Northumberland.

Remains of what must once have been quite a substantial settlement in the 13th and 14th centuries. The main concentration of the settlement is situated at 275 m OD, on a gentle SE-facing slope, and comprises about 15 rectangular steadings and garths marked by turf-covered wall footings. The whole is clearly associated with a widespread pattern of medieval (or later) cultivation terraces, rig and furrow, fragmentary field walls and stone clearance heaps.

The houses measure c.12m-15m by 4m-5m with garths c.17m wide by 25m long. There is a small circular corn drying kiln at east end of village. Today, nobody lives as high or cultivates the land here, and the only upstanding remains are those of a sheepfold (stell).

K2P: N1269

Scheduled Monument: 1006483

Geograph: www.geograph.org.uk/snippet/7779

Hillfort, Old Fawdon Hill, Ingram

7/2/2026

Old Fawdon Hill, Ingram, Northumberland.

It was disputed at one time that this actually was a hillfort as the traces of ramparts are so faint, although never ploughed. Aerial photos and ground survey showed the presence of two partial ovoid ditches around the hilltop that would have been the course of timber palisades.

Internally there are the remains of up to 61 roundhouses (many clearly visible on lidar). Larger houses range in size from 7.8-12m in diameter, and lie in the area between the two circuits of palisade trench. The rest of the roundhouses are represented by shallow scoops 4-8m in diameter. Twenty-seven house platforms lie within the 0.6ha area created by the inner palisade.

Today the remains of the rampart survives as a low, turf covered stony scarp, parts just visible on LIDAR. A more prominent bank 0.7m high and 4.0m wide with a ditch 0.7m deep and 4m wide on its south side, lies to the W of the enclosure, and is perhaps part of a cross-dyke extending for 180m towards the Fawdon Burn.
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3D model LIDAR landscape: https://skfb.ly/pBnqJ

Atlas of Hillforts: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk/records/EN0562.html

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

Hillforts on West Hill & St Gregory's Hill, Kirknewton

7/2/2026

Hillforts on West Hill & St Gregory's Hill, Kirknewton, Northumberland.

3D model on Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/pBoNp

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

Great Hetha & Little Hetha hillforts, Cheviot Hills

6/2/2026

Great Hetha & Little Hetha hillforts, Cheviot Hills, Northumberland.

There are several settlements of probable Iron Age or Romano-British date overlooking the Hetha Burn to the west of Great Hetha hillfort, and the Hethpool stone circle, of probable Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age date, is below the north-east side of the hill, on the floor of the College Valley.

Great Hetha is described as one of the best defended prehistoric settlements (by both its location and ramparts) in the north-east Cheviot. Nine circular hut platforms were identified by survey within the inner rampart of Great Hetha hillfort and are of probable Iron Age date. The inner rampart was remodelled much later as a walled sheep pen, with a hut built for the shepherd in the gap between the two ramparts in the north-east.

3D lidar landscape on sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/pBLNr

An Iron Age Hillfort on Great Hetha, Northumberland. Survey Report by T Pearson & Amy Lax (2016).

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

Mounthooly, College Valley, Cheviot Hills

6/2/2026

Descending to the College Burn above Mounthooly. Photo A Curtis (2012) https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3100798

Enclosed native settlements of Roman-period, cultivation terraces and cairn-field south-west of Mounthooly, College Valley, Cheviot Hills, Northumberland.

Scheduled Monument protected by law: 1015647

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3100798

Hethpool, Cheviot Hills

6/2/2026

Hethpool, Cheviot Hills, Northumberland.

Showing extensive agricultural terrraces of possibly prehistoric date on the southern slopes of White Hill & Laddies Knowe, north-west of the village,

Rushworth, A. (2004). Hethpool, Northumberland; An Archaeological and Historical Study of a Border Township. The Archaeological Practice.

K2P: N612

3D LIDAR landscape on Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/pBPVY

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

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

Ring Chesters Iron Age hillfort, Cheviot Hills

6/2/2026

Ring Chesters Iron Age hillfort, Cheviot Hills, Northumberland.

3D LIDAR landscape on Sketchfab: https://skfb.ly/pBTVE

Scheduled Monument Protected by Law: 1008364

Historic England Survey (2016): Ring Chesters, Northumberland: an Iron Age Hillfort and its Environs. Survey Report by: T Pearson, A Oswald, Stewart Ainsworth

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

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

Photo A Curtis (2012) https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3156634

Photo A Curtis (2003). https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1726429

Deserted Medieval Village of Heddon (Cheviot Hills)

6/2/2026

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

The Deserted Medieval Village of Heddon (and some earlier prehistoric settlement remains) west of Ring Chesters, Cheviot Hills, Northumberland. Documentary evidence indicates discontinuous occupation between the late 13th and the late 17th centuries.

Scheduled Monument: 1020380...

3D LIDAR landscape: https://skfb.ly/pBTVE

Sheepfold below Coldsmouth Hill. Photo A Curtis (2012) https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3156724

Coldsmouth Hill, Cheviot Hills

6/2/2026

Prehistoric enclosures of the native Romano-British period style, scooped into the hillside NW of Coldsmouth Hill, Cheviot Hills, Northumberland. Some with clear round-house platforms. The prehistoric 'village' survives just above the tide-line of broad-rigg ploughing and asociated remains of rectilinear buildings (medieval and later) lower down the valley side.

Scheduled Monument protected by law: 1015638

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