Rising to 1182 feet, and thereby narrowly achieving the technical status of a mountain, the broad, sensuous, double peaked bulk of Yeavering Bell dominates the north Cheviot foothills.

It was formed in the Devonian period, some 350 million years ago in the violent volcanic eruptions which created the entire Cheviot range. These hills were sculpted into their present rounded shape by a succession of glaciers during the ice ages.

The Bell has always fired the human imagination and, indeed, local people still gauge the weather, time and the progress of the seasons with reference to the Bell. Four thousand years ago the people used the Bell to align stones and monuments. It has always, it seems, been a place of significance.

Aerial photograph by Keith Latty (Borders Gliding Club)

The hill is crowned with the largest hill fort in Northumberland. The term 'hill fort' is misleading, as a casual visit will testify. Both peaks of the hill are surrounded by the tumbled remains of what must have been an immense and impressive wall.

The obvious function of such a structure is that of defence, but Yeavering must have served a different purpose to that of the dozens of smaller 'forts' that pepper the surrounding hilltops. The walls at Yeavering, built from pink andesite and probably quarried from within the hill itself, could well have been a kind of status symbol. A demonstration of the wealth and power of the builders.

Inside the wall, an area of thirteen acres, are the still visible sites of over one hundred huts and other structures. The blue dots on the diagram below show the position of the more obvious of these.

In the valley to the south of the Bell can be seen the remains of stock enclosures and field patterns are visible on the facing hillside. The main entrance to the township is visible on the south side of the ruined walls.

This was no simple military hill fort then, this was a whole town on the top of Yeavering Bell.

Although no serious excavations have taken place on the Bell a crude dig in the middle of the nineteenth century yielded some small finds attributable to the first century AD.

In 1958 one or two of the hut circles were briefly excavated by Brian Hope-Taylor. Roman items were unearthed in one hut and sherds of Samian pottery were found in anorther. These finds confirm that the settlement was in use in the first century AD. A survey in 1998 was undertaken by Keith Blood and Trevor Pearson of RCHME as a part of the 'Discovering Our Hillfort Heritage' project. The results of this survey are the most up to date insight we have on the structure of the township on The Bell.

The hillfort on Yeavering Bell is usually thought to date from the latter half of the first millennium BC, although it certainly could be earlier and a late Bronze Age origin much closer to 1000 BC is not improbable. During the late Iron Age and Romano British periods parts of the lower slopes of the bell became littered with enclosed settlements and associated field systems, but without further investigation in the field it is impossible to to know how these sites relate, chronologically, to the hillfort.

A field to the North of Yeavering Bell (the Field immediatley to the East of the row of cottges at NT924303) is the site of the Yeavering Henge. The henge was investigated in 1976 by Anthony Harding. Harding's investigations were part of a larger project studying the henges on the Milfield Plain, to the North of Yeavering. The Milfield Henge was itself aligned to Yeavering Bell and a reconstruction can be seen at the Maelmin Heritage Trail in Milfield. The Yeavering Henge was aligned with Ross Castle. These alignments may relate to places with, perhaps, spiritual significance pre dating the henges themselves.

In the next field to the East you will find (NT930314) what is known as the Yeavering Battle Stone. This Bronze Age megalith stands in an area where remains of burial pits and the debris of mesolithic flint working have been found. In the late Middle Ages it took on new meaning and significance when it became seen as marking the spot where Sir Robert Umfraville and the Earl of Westmoreland with 140 spearmen and 300 bowmen defeated 4000 Scots in 1415. However the stone was already ancient when King Edwin dined at Ad Gefrin several centuries before the battle the stone is thought to comemorate took place. The Ordnance Survey map is one way this myth is kept alive.

It fell down in 1890 and was re-erected in 1924 on a concrete base but cannot be far from it's original position The stone is associated with the henge which stood 120m to the West..

From the earliest days Yeavering Bell has been a special place. A sacred place. A place today to fire the imagination. And really we know so little. We have glimpses of threads we would love to weave together to tell us more. To let us see the whole tapestry locked in the hills. Until the chance comes to investigate Yeavering and Ad Gefrin further we must be content to remain in the Dark Ages.

As anyone who has been to Yeavering Bell will tell you, climbing to that double summit is well worth the effort. Even simply for the splendid views to the North and out over the North Sea, where Lindisfarne is easily visible. The scenery to the south, over the Cheviot range, is staggering too. But the view into our past is where Yeavering can stop you in your tracks.

For example...

Click Here for a panorama from the top of Yeavering Bell