How to reach Yeavering Bell « « Coldstream Berwick MILFIELD R Till ip Site of R Glen Gefrin P B6351 Kirknewton Yeavering Bell B6349 B6526 « Akeld Belford Yeavering and A1 The Hill of the Goats Bell WOOLER B6348 Humbleton A697 in Northumberland National Park Hill © Crown Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence Number 100022521. Please park at the Gefrin monument lay-by or on the grass verge indicated on the route map. Park carefully and do not block any gates. Please use an Ordnance Survey map: OS Explorer OL 16 The Cheviot Hills. Allow at least 3 hours to complete this 3.5 mile (5.5km) walk. Some of the walking is strenuous, with a steep descent, and the top is very exposed in poor weather. Wear good walking boots and take warm water- proof clothing with you. Nearest National Park Centres: National Park Centre, Rothbury T: +44 (0)1669 620887 National Park Centre, Ingram T: +44 (0)1665 578890 For public transport information: The hillfort is a protected monument and is managed under the terms of an agreement between Northumberland National Park Authority and the landowner. Under the terms of the agreement, parts of the trail may be closed for a few days each year. Contact +44 (0)1434 605555 for closure information. Please respect this ancient site and leave the stones as you find them. To protect wildlife and farm animals, please keep your dog on a lead at all times. Thank you. Supported by Part financed by the June 2010 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURAL A journey through the mists of time to GUIDANCE AND GUARANTEE FUND Northumberland’s most spectacular Iron Age Hillfort Northumberland National Park Authority, Eastburn, South Park, Hexham, Northumberland NE46 1BS Front cover photograph - View from Yeavering Bell © Graeme Peacock. www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk “We are groping our way through a dark period....the people who lived then had little to leave behind them, and therefore but few relics can be discovered.” George Tate, the first archaeologist known to have dug at Yeavering Bell in 1862 Reconstruction of Yeavering Bell in about 200BC by ©Eric Dale. Reconstruction of Yeavering Photo: ©Tim Gates. The mark on the land The mark on the mind This powerful and imposing hill has attracted people for millennia. Over This is a place where the length of human history feels accessible four thousand years ago, Stone Age people aligned a sacred monument and ancient lives can seem tantalisingly close. to face it. Yeavering Bell was a focus – but for what? And why? Surprisingly few archaeologists have been drawn to Yeavering Bell Two thousand years later, other people made this special place their own. over the years. However, recent survey work and old excavations They built about 130 roundhouses, protected within a massive stone have revealed something of the structure of the hillfort and the nature rampart. Today, this rampart, although tumbled, is still impressive, and of its buildings. closer inspection of the hilltop reveals the platforms where their houses once stood. The fort was probably built about 2500 years ago and was one of the largest Iron Age settlements in northern Britain. But what were the This is the largest hillfort in Northumberland, a land rich in hillforts. people like? These high defensible settlements were a feature of Iron Age life. But why were they built? Who did the builders seek protection from? How did they live? How did they understand this place? Or was the site as much to do with prestige as protection? Why was it eventually abandoned? Please use an Ordnance Survey map Yeavering Bell B6351 Alternative parking on grass Kirknewton verge if lay-by is full. Please P Waymarked hillfort trail 1 /2 mile do not block farm track. This walk to the top of Ignore permissive path Yeavering Bell takes you signposted ‘Yeavering Bell’. around the hill, approaching it gently. The final ascent is across rough ground to the main entrance of the hillfort. It takes you back from the time of the Anglo-Saxons, the mysterious Dark Ages where early written history mingles Turn left onto with legend, into the even more St Cuthbert’s Way. distant and elusive prehistoric past. Gefrin The Anglo-Saxons built a royal villa at Gefrin, including a magnificent timber hall, in what is now the field north of the lay-by around 600 AD (see artist’s impression, top right). Often when the Anglo-Saxons occupied important Ancient British sites, they renamed them. Here they used the local name, Gefrin, which has evolved into the modern Yeavering, meaning ‘the hill of the goats’. The Old Palace This barn was originally an early form of bastle house, or defensible farm- house, built in the early sixteenth century. It offered protection from attack at the time of the Border Reivers. As Turn left at signpost to time passed, local mythology linked ‘Yeavering Bell’ and follow this building with Gefrin and people waymarkers called it the ‘Old Palace’. to the hillfort. North Stone Age temple Bronze Age aligned towards cemetery Iron Age Yeavering Bell at Gefrin hillfort constructed 2000BC 1800BC 500BC(?) BC 2000BC 750BC Birth Age of Stonehenge Rome of and the Great Pyramids founded Christ ©Peter Dunn, English Heritage. Gefrin P Take care walking Please park at the Wooler along the road. Gefrin monument 5 miles lay-by. Follow waymarkers on path that zigzags down hill. You are free to explore within the ramparts of the hillfort. Yeavering Bell A hillfort dweller looking out from the ramparts would have seen people busy in the fields below and several other distant hillforts, perhaps with smoke rising from their fires. Their timber roundhouses would have looked similar to this reconstructed example, which can be visited at Castell Henllys hillfort in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Illustration: ©Eric Dale Gefrin Gefrin ‘Old Palace’ George Tate NNPA constructed abandoned bastle built excavates adopts site AD AD600 AD700(?) AD1540(?) AD1860s AD1998 AD122 AD410 AD1066 AD1500-1603 AD1837 AD1998 Hadrian’s End of Battle of Border Queen Angel of Wall built Roman Hastings Reivers Victoria the North Britain crowned erected.