Beanley Moor Enclosure

Trip No.34  Entry No.4  Date Added: 22nd Jul 2017
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jul 2017. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Beanley Moor Iron Age Defended Settlement, Northumberland: We had an abortive attempt to find the Fawdon Cross Base at NU 0281 1591 (nowhere anywhere nearby to park) and Beanley Plantation Hillfort. The tracks to the latter were either waterlogged (husband said we needed diving equipment – a slight exaggeration, I think!), although we could have tried from the paths through the forest from the south (but didn’t). We then made our way to the Beanley Moor settlement/enclosure just to its north. This is a short hop up the field. There is a path leading up the slope (it’s all access land here) which brings you to the southern edge of the enclosure, although having spotted a slight bank popping up out of the grass, we made a more direct bee-line up the slope.

Curious how the landscape has changed in just a few miles. The area is completely sandy – like a beach, which it must have been at one point in the dim and distant path, although higher up the slope it becomes more of a loam.

Very, very little remains of this possible Iron Age settlement, although there was enough left of two parallel shallow ditches for us to follow their line round in a circle. Thought we spotted a possible entrance in the south west of the enclosure, a possible roundhouse partly built into the bank (although heavily disguised by tussocks and bracken in parts) and a hollow way leading north-west/south-east along the north eastern edge of the settlement, leading up to the Beanley Plantation Hillfort.

Brilliant views down to the River Breamish Valley, but that’s as much as can be said for this site. Glad we stopped off, though.

Haystack Hill (Ingram)

Trip No.34  Entry No.3  Date Added: 21st Jul 2017
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jul 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Haystack Hill Settlement Complex, Ingram, Northumberland: Having stopped off at North Haystack Hill, it was getting hot by this point, although there was a pleasant breeze. The path was levelling out now and there was an electric fence to our left hand side. Where this had dropped down to the grass at one point, we made our way across to the gate at the north western part of the field. The ground here was very boggy, descending into deep puddles at various points, so we picked our way around. A sign on the gate said ‘end of access land’ although there is a permissive footpath around the edge of the field leading into the south western corner of this complex settlement.

This site is huge. I wish I’d printed off an aerial photograph to take with me, so I could have understood it better – a good excuse for a return visit.

We first explored the rectangular enclosure with its row of hut circles in, then made our way between the B2 (the southern most of the two B enclosures) and C.

Wow. Although deep in bracken, it was still possible to make out tall banks and circular features I felt very priviledged to have come here, as I did at Burdhope last week. A brilliant, brilliant site. With the other hillforts all around, it was very atmospheric.

Ingram Hill

Trip No.34  Entry No.1  Date Added: 21st Jul 2017
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jul 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Ingram Hill Settlement, Breamish Valley: Making the most of a warm, sunny day we set off to the Ingram in the Beamish Valley, not to walk the Hillfort Trail this time, but to look at some settlements marked on the OS map. Taking supposedly ‘the shortest route’ the roads were so twisty and windy that it took forever, and I ended up feeling travel sick for most of the afternoon.

I had forgotten how beautiful and calm this little valley is. There were a dozen or so cars parked on the grass by the river, with people picnicking. Passing the car park just outside Ingram, there was only one car – in Northumberland I expect to see more sheep than people on a day out. Setting off west out of Ingram, we parked just outside the village on a wide grass verge that people had obviously used before us. Walking the 100 metres or so to where the stony footpath climbed gently up to Turf Knowe, we had the old field boundary and modern wire fence to our left. Where the footpath meets the access land at the south western corner of the field, another permission footpath/stone covered track branched off to the south east towards Wether Hill. Typically, we didn’t use the path but tramped through the knee high grass and bracken, surprising the sheep who’d sought shade.

The circular banks of this settlement rose gently out of the turf. Some of the sheep were grazing on top. I walked all the way round the bank, which is 160 feet in diameter. There is a clear two roomed rectangular house on the interior northern bank, looking down to the River Breamish below.

Another circular feature, which I thought was a small roundhouse, was to be found towards the middle of the settlement. Pastscape says this is the remains of some shielings.

After taking a short break to make the most of the sunshine, we took the permissive path and headed up towards Haystack Hill.

North Haystack Hill

Trip No.34  Entry No.2  Date Added: 21st Jul 2017
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jul 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: North Haystack Hill, Ingram, Northumberland: After Ingram Hill Enclosure, we took the permissive footpath to its east, walking up between Turf Knowe to our east and Wether Hill to the west. From this point on, for the next quarter of a mile, we seemed to be constantly moving out of the way of a tractor and a small four-wheel drive van and trailer mowing bracken (they seemed to target us with every turn!), up until the division of footpaths just before this earthwork, which appeared as a low stone and earth mound, about 1 metre wide and 80cm high, running to the left of the footpath. It ran for several hundred metres with the occasional bank peeping out of the bracken to the east. By this time, we were 800 metres from Ingram Hill Settlement, and a couple of hundred yards from the main Haystack Hill complex. We stepped over the low electric wire that was keeping the sheep in a particular area and went to investigate.

What a view to have from your front door, down the Middledean Burn valley to the west and the Breamish Valley and Ingram below.

Getting back home and opening up Pastcape, I was surprised to find this is a recorded Iron Age/Roman enclosed settlement. Although the long bank is medieval, the settlement is described as ‘much mutilated’ with a number of scooped hut circles. It can be seen on UK Grid Reference Finder aerial images, with ridge and furrow ploughing cutting over the top.

Making our way back to the path, which by now was levelling off, we continued up the slope towards the larger Haystack Hill settlement.