This is a multi-period upland landscape on the Cheviot fringes south of Mounthooly in the College Valley, Northumberland, where a Bronze Age cairnfield, a later prehistoric enclosure, a Romano-British settlement and medieval shieling huts occupy the same hillside. The Romano-British phase, broadly 1st–4th century AD, would have comprised a small enclosed farmstead with stone-founded round huts and associated yards, typical of native settlement in the Cheviot uplands during the Roman Iron Age.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site lies well beyond any fort or vicus, within the zone of indigenous pastoral communities north of Hadrian's Wall whose relationship with Rome was managed through frontier diplomacy rather than direct occupation. Its significance is as part of a dense pattern of small native farmsteads in the College and Bowmont valleys, demonstrating continuous exploitation of the Cheviot uplands from prehistory into the medieval period.
The site is known principally from earthwork survey (RCAHMS/Historic England and Northumberland NAU work in the Cheviots), recording hut circles, an enclosure bank, clearance cairns and the stone footings of later shieling bothies; no modern excavation has been published, so dating relies on morphological comparison with excavated Cheviot settlements such as those on Standrop Rigg, Houseledge and Yeavering.
This is a multi-period upland landscape on the Cheviot fringes south of Mounthooly in the College Valley, Northumberland, where a Bronze Age cairnfield, a later prehistoric enclosure, a Romano-British settlement and medieval shieling huts occupy the same hillside. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Bronze Age cairnfield, prehistoric enclosure, Romano-British settlement and medieval shielings 500m south of Mounthooly is classified as a Roman settlement — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Roman period native enclosed settlement 270m ESE of Fleehope (1.6 km), Roman period native enclosed farmstead, 470m ESE of Fleehope (1.7 km), Roman period native enclosed settlement and medieval sheiling 165m north east of Dunsdale (2.3 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Bronze Age cairnfield, prehistoric enclosure, Romano-British settlement and medieval shielings 500m south of Mounthooly