Carswell Cleugh

A small bridge over the Linhope Burn bathed in low late afternoon sun. This photograph was taken during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020/21/22.

Partially frozen

A fingerpost directs the path to Linhope Spout, following a grassy trail through the rushes. In the distance, across the valley, the moor and the wooded Dunmoor Burn ravine display their splendid autumnal colours.

A view of the wide, flat Linhope valley that stretches out beyond the Spout. The landscape is characterizsed by dry bracken, coarse grasses, and clusters of rushes, all of which play a significant role in the local vegetation.

I see some squiggly lines on the map, paired with fancy Gothic writing, and I just can’t resist taking a look. And more often than not, it turns up a gem. This is Greaves Ash, close to Linhope, high up in the Breamish Valley. Turns out, it is a big Romano-British settlement, with the obvious remains of many roundhouses, walls, and trackways to look at. There were some excavations back in the 1850/60s, but modern archaeologists have re-evaluated it, along with all sites in the Breamish valley. Greaves Ash is one of, if not the biggest, settlements in the valley. It has clear connections to other settlements and hill-forts, spread across a landscape of fields and boundaries. That’s a sure sign that folks put a lot of effort into making this land thrive, a land which has nutritious, volcanic soil. It drains well — although that’s hard to believe this weekend — and is easy to plough and hoe. You can see large swathes of terraces carved into the hillsides lower down the valley. Up on the Cheviot meadows, sheep grazing is good. And they didn’t just keep it all for themselves. There’s evidence that back in the 2nd century AD, the locals here sold the surplus to the Roman armies. And it seems like they did pretty well for themselves, because the villages they built were quite substantial, like the one at Greaves Ash. Sheep, wool, and grains were sent to the forts along Hadrian’s Wall. They might have even traded craft items with the forts and the town at Corbridge. The land to the north of Hadrian’s Wall was always on the edge of the Roman Empire. Even when the Antonine Wall briefly was built across Scotland’s central belt, they certainly weren’t at the heart of things. But that’s not to say the Romans didn’t leave their mark. Rome’s interests went beyond their borders, and the folks out on the edge of the Empire were sure to be interested in what was happening inside it. The tribes of the Cheviots seemed to have been on good terms with the Romans, perhaps acting as a buffer with the Picts further north. The Breamish Valley drains eastward, providing to a natural route out of the hills to the coast at Berwick and, by a Roman road, south to the forts and towns of Hadrian’s Wall. But let’s not forget, the tribes of the Cheviots were considered barbarians, so their traders probably had to wait in line at the Wall’s gates and prove they were legit before being allowed to pass through. From my blog ‘From Fields to Forts — Greaves Ash’s Role in Roman Britain’. 2023. Out & About ... <Link > [accessed 4 November 2023] ‌

In the background is Hedgehope Hill (right), Great Standrop (centre) and Coldlaw Cairn (left). For a selection of free to download walking routes in the area visit Link

Great Standrop, Standrop Rigg

The prominent tors of Great Standrop are formed from shattered Cheviot granite NT9418 : Great Standrop, near Linhope, Ingram Valley. Little Standrop is on the same ridge just to their left.

A series of three complex late Iron Age settlements on the hillside shoulder of Grieve's Ash, east of Linhope. The site, usually known with the spelling, 'Greave's Ash', consists of two walled enclosures, the eastern of which is double walled, containing numbers of large round-houses, some of Romano-British age overlying the earlier structures. The remains of similar buildings and yards, are cut deeply into the hillside at a higher level above the stockyards some 200m north-east demonstrating an expanding and prosperous settlement. It is thought that the Greave's Ash settlements were contemporary with the field system of banks and clearance cairns that extends east beyond the modern plantation. Limited excavations were carried out on all three settlements by George Tate Link of the Berwickshire Naturalists Club in 1861 who applied the names of 'Western', 'Eastern' and 'Upper Fort'. Link Link There is an aerial photo here: Link Archive Link Pastscape: Link Archive Link Link Archive Link

Late Iron Age scooped enclosures and remains of several hut circles on the steep southern slope of Grieve's Ash.

Two Davids investigating the impressive archaeology of the 'Upper Fort' at Grieve's Ash high above the River Breamish at Linhope.

View towards the site of the 'Western Fort' in the fenced field below.

A series of three complex late Iron Age settlements on the hillside shoulder of Grieve's Ash, east of Linhope. The site, usually known with the spelling, 'Greave's Ash', consists of two walled enclosures, the eastern of which is double walled, containing numbers of large round-houses, some of Romano-British age overlying the earlier structures. The remains of similar buildings and yards, are cut deeply into the hillside at a higher level above the stockyards some 200m north-east demonstrating an expanding and prosperous settlement. It is thought that the Greave's Ash settlements were contemporary with the field system of banks and clearance cairns that extends east beyond the modern plantation. Limited excavations were carried out on all three settlements by George Tate Link of the Berwickshire Naturalists Club in 1861 who applied the names of 'Western', 'Eastern' and 'Upper Fort'. Link Link There is an aerial photo here: Link Archive Link Pastscape: Link Archive Link Link Archive Link

A series of three complex late Iron Age settlements on the hillside shoulder of Grieve's Ash, east of Linhope. The site, usually known with the spelling, 'Greave's Ash', consists of two walled enclosures, the eastern of which is double walled, containing numbers of large round-houses, some of Romano-British age overlying the earlier structures. The remains of similar buildings and yards, are cut deeply into the hillside at a higher level above the stockyards some 200m north-east demonstrating an expanding and prosperous settlement. It is thought that the Greave's Ash settlements were contemporary with the field system of banks and clearance cairns that extends east beyond the modern plantation. Limited excavations were carried out on all three settlements by George Tate Link of the Berwickshire Naturalists Club in 1861 who applied the names of 'Western', 'Eastern' and 'Upper Fort'. Link Link There is an aerial photo here: Link Archive Link Pastscape: Link Archive Link Link Archive Link

View over the site of the 'Western Fort' to the woods above Linhope. Ritto Hill is on the right.

The 'Upper Fort' settlement is further up the slope near the forest plantation. "The huts are now roofless, the fires of the hearths quenched for ever, the fortifications levelled; yet these ruins have outlasted the erections of more civilized times, and they still lemain to tell us something of the busy population who hunted, tended flocks, tilled the ground, and quarrelled and fought, at a very distant period, in the valley of the Breamish." 'On the old Celtic Town at Greaves Ash ...' by George Tate (1861)

"Facts such as those elicited by our excavations may by themselves appear insignificant, but when viewed in connection with more extended observations, they acquire a meaning which enables us to gain glimpses into the history of the past. So little is made known of our early historyby ancient writers, that we gladly catch the faintest rays which are reflected from laborious investigations into heaps of stones and ruined walls and houses." George Tate (1863), On the Old Celtic Town at Greaves Ash, quoted in Frodsham P (2004) Archaeology in Northumberland National Park.