Category: Redesdale

Roman Fort & Camp, Blakehope

16/2/2026

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

Blakehope, Otterburn, Northumberland.

The monument includes the remains of a Roman fort contained within the partial remains of a larger Roman temporary camp, situated on gently sloping ground adjacent to the Dere Street Roman road. The Roman fort is visible as a rectangular enclosure with rounded corners measuring approximately 128m by 119m and orientated NW to SE; it is defined by a single turf built rampart with an outer ditch visible as intermittent low earthworks. There are at least two recorded entrances. A small excavation within the Roman fort indicated it to be pre-Hadrianic in date. The fort is situated within a larger enclosure, interpreted as a Roman temporary camp. This enclosure is defined by a rampart with an internal and external ditch which are partially visible as slight earthworks on the W, N and NW sides. The temporary camp is cut by the Roman Road Dere Street indicating that the road is later than the camp.

Scheduled Monument:
https://historicengland.org.uk/.../the.../list-entry/1006507

Keys to the Past: N8278

Archaeology in Northumberland Vol. 15 p.39 (2005).

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Bellshiel Neolithic Long Cairn

10/2/2026

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Bellshiel Neolithic Long Cairn, Northumberland.

A Long Cairn occupies the crest of a narrow ridge in open moorland (fenced after scheduling) at about 300m above sea level. Orientated at an angle of 279 degrees, it is partially earth covered on the north side. It has a maximum height of 1.6m, length of 109m, and varies in breadth between 15m in the east and 8.8m in the west. The cairn was excavated in 1935 when a possible cist and a rock cut grave were found and cup marked stones noted nearby (later described only as water-worn depressions). Little was found and the excavator called the mound a 'monster of degeneracy'. It was not possible to date it securely to the Neolithic period.

A stone-walled enclosure attached to the S side of the cairn is a later feature re-using stones from the cairn.
Long cairns are the burial places of Britain's early farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments surviving visibly in the present landscape. Where investigated, they appear to have been used for communal burial, often with only parts of the human remains having been selected for interment.

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5363312

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Enclosures, Whitelee

6/2/2026

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Whitelee, Redesdale, Northumberland.

Location: NT 714 050

Rectilinear enclosures such as those shown here are usually assumed to be used for control of animals on the farm (sheep or cattle). They are usually made of low banks of turf or earth, have no entrance, and are probably not that old (post-medieval). However, to keep stock in (or out) they must have had a surrounding fence or hedge, and a gate. What is unusual here is that there are nine regular enclosures (and another faint triangular one in the centre), and several of them overlap. Does this give us any clue as to how they were used? If they were required seasonally (e.g. for lambing) why not just reuse one already made rather than create a new one? The small recangular and circular banked enclosures are probably stack stands, dug and also fenced to protect stacks of winter fodder from the animals.

K2P: N36572

"Unusual rectilinear enclosure, east of Whitelee Bridge, with four separate surrounding banks in places, perhaps indicative of different phases of construction. Clearly visible on lidar imagery. Unlike anything else noted in Redesdale. Nothing shown here on historic Ordnance Survey maps. Several other rectilinear enclosures in the vicinity are clearly related, all presumably linked to post-medieval agriculture."

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

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Dour Hill long cairn & round cairn

6/2/2026

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Dour Hill, Redesdale, Northumberland.

Chambered/Long Cairn & Round Cairn just visible among the detritus of clear-felled forest plantation. Both sites are Scheduled Monuments protected by law.

K2P: N67

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

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Three Romano-British enclosed settlements near Nether Houses

4/2/2026

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Nether Houses, Rochester, Northumberland.

Location: NY 823 969

K2P: N8099
K2P: N8100
K2P: N8101

One to the NW close to the sheep-shelter (bield). Well preserved settlement to its SE and the third hidden by trees (on DSM) in a fairly recent forestry plantation.

There are faint impressions of a field system close to the settlements and also a few unenclosed hut circles which may relate to an earlier or contemporary period.

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

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

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Catcleugh Reservoir

4/2/2026

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Catcleugh Reservoir, Redesdale, Northumberland.

Catcleugh Reservoir was constructed between 1884 and 1905 in the upper valley of the River Rede for the Newcastle & Gateshead Water Company. The accompanying LIDAR images show the dam and associated works at the east end of the reservoir (stepped overflow, and outlet of tunnel for compensation water), and the shadowy remains of the hutted villages located both north and south of the river, east of the dam, which were used by the construction workers (navvies). Compare to the schematic plan of the dam area showing the line of the old and modern roads, and the several lines of the narrow-gauge railway used in the construction.

Northumberland National Park: Catcleugh Reservoir

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

Schematic plan of the area of Catcleugh Dam - Northumberland National Park.

The last 'Black House' at Catcleugh Reservoir
"In time to come when navvies meet
Upon some distant job
They'll cast their mind
Back o'er the years
That time doth from us rob
And in a drop of prime old stuff
They'll talk upon the happy days
They had up at the 'Cleugh'"

From 'The Cleugh' by Billy Bell, Redesdale roadman and Border Bard (1904)

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Roman temporary camps, Bellshiel, Otterburn

3/2/2026

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Three Roman temporary camps along Dere Street at Bellshiel & Sills Burn, Otterburn MOD Ranges, Northumberland.

The mounds within the western (largest) camp are bell-pits from coal mining, apart from one on the highest point which is thought to be a Bronze Age burial mound (tumulus). The mining clearly post-dates the rig & furrow cultivation as do the internal enclosure banks. LIDAR interestingly shows traces of the road connecting the east gate of the fort (and passing to both sides of the exterior traverse) to Dere Street now followed by a modern military road.

K2P: N8087
K2P: N8095
K2P: N328

The three camps are Scheduled Monuments protected by law.

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

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Roman temporary camp at Bagraw

30/1/2026

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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

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WW1 practice trenches, Silloans

30/1/2026

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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)

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The Reedwater Minstrel

7/11/2019

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This last couple of years has seen me doing some exploring and more detailed archaeology in Redesdale. It is beautiful, wild Northumberland countryside with a wealth of wildlife, history and tradition. I have had the honour to work alongside local people and other like-minded folk from Tynedale Archaeology Group as a volunteer on the National Lottery funded Revitalising Redesdale project.

Redesdale from moorland west of Rattenraw. A Curtis (2018).

Another computer-based project is now drawing to a conclusion, that of transcribing the Northumberland Ordnance Survey Name Books of the 1860's first survey, a project led by Professor Diana Whalley. The last parish to be transcribed was Elsdon (including Rochester, Otterburn and a few parts of other parishes, before boundary changes) with about 800 interesting and often informative place-names. Involvement with this project has led me to this post.

Given as an authority to the spelling of one of the place-names in the parish was a reference to 'The Lay of the Reedwater Minstrel'. It is a poem by Robert Roxby, and reading it makes you aware that not only was he too facinated by the place-names of the area but also appeared to know them intimately as places, along with a few of the local inhabitants.

“He’ll sing Reedwater’s muirlands wild,
Where whirring heath-cocks flee,
Where limpid wells and heather bells
Delight the sportsman’s e’e.”

This quotation is used on page 13 of the Revitalising Redesdale: Landscape Conservation Action Plan (LCAP-Part 1) published in July 2017.

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Roman Fort & Camp, Blakehope

Bellshiel Neolithic Long Cairn

Enclosures, Whitelee

Dour Hill long cairn & round cairn

Three Romano-British enclosed settlements near Nether Houses

Catcleugh Reservoir

Roman temporary camps, Bellshiel, Otterburn

Roman temporary camp at Bagraw

WW1 practice trenches, Silloans

The Reedwater Minstrel

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