Yeavering Bell is a twin-peaked hill near the River Glen in north

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

, England, to the west of

Wooler Wooler ( ) is a small town in Northumberland, England. It lies on the edge of the Northumberland National Park, near the Cheviot Hills. It is a popular base for walkers and is referred to as the "Gateway to the Cheviots". As well as many shops ...

, and forming part of the Cheviot Hills. The summit, 1158 feet (361 metres) above sea level, is encircled by the wall of a late-prehistoric

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

, a tribal centre of the

Votadini The Votadini, also known as the ''Uotadini'', ''Wotādīni'', ''Votādīni'', or ''Otadini'' were a Celtic Britons, Brittonic people of the British Iron Age, Iron Age in Great Britain. Their territory was in what is now south-east Scotland and ...

called in

Brythonic Brittonic or Brythonic may refer to: *Common Brittonic, or Brythonic, the Celtic language anciently spoken in Great Britain *Brittonic languages, a branch of the Celtic languages descended from Common Brittonic *Britons (Celtic people) The Br ...

and

Old Welsh Old Welsh ( cy, Hen Gymraeg) is the stage of the Welsh language from about 800 AD until the early 12th century when it developed into Middle Welsh.Koch, p. 1757. The preceding period, from the time Welsh became distinct from Common Brittonic ...

Din Gefron, from which the name stems (

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

*geafringa-). The hillfort encloses an area of approximately and is enclosed by a stone wall, upwards of thick, having four entrances, one of which is defended by a guard-house; and within this area is an inner fort, excavated out of the rock, of an oval form, measuring across at the widest part. On the sides of the hill, and in a high valley between the Bell and the next hill, called Whitelaw, there are many remains of stone huts rudely flagged, some in groups surrounded by rampiers (ramparts), and others isolated. Barrows, too, are numerous here. The hillfort enclosure was constructed in two phases, according to a survey by English Heritage. The 'roundhouses' within the fort suggests communal living but these need not all have been dwellings. The differing size of these buildings may have indicated the status of their original occupants. The buildings of the hillfort would have been bright pink when first constructed, being made from local

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predo ...

. This stone is pink when quarried and turns, after a few years’ exposure to the elements, to a dull grey. Yeavering Bell overlooks the important Angle site of

Yeavering Yeavering () is a hamlet (place), hamlet in the north-east corner of the civil parish of Kirknewton, Northumberland, Kirknewton in the English county of Northumberland. It is located on the River Glen, Northumberland, River Glen at the northern ...

in the valley just to the north, which was mentioned by

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom ...

in his ''

Ecclesiastical History of the English People The ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' ( la, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum), written by Bede in about AD 731, is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict b ...

''. The outlines of the wooden royal hall and assembly building have been marked out in the grass at Yeavering, and can be picked out from the slopes of Yeavering Bell. File:Steep northern slopes of Yeavering Bell - geograph.org.uk - 1381778.jpg, Steep northern slopes of Yeavering Bell File:Walls, Yeavering Bell - geograph.org.uk - 1386089.jpg, View north-northeast from Yeavering Bell File:The long north eastern slope of Yeavering Bell - geograph.org.uk - 779134.jpg, North-east slope seen from near to White Law File:Summit cairn, Yeavering Bell - geograph.org.uk - 1507982.jpg, Summit cairn File:Yeavering Bell summit - geograph.org.uk - 1508712.jpg, Summit File:Yeavering Bell summit - geograph.org.uk - 1507976.jpg, Summit File:Yeavering Bell hill fort - geograph.org.uk - 1508062.jpg, Hill fort File:Sheepfold below Yeavering Bell - geograph.org.uk - 1507889.jpg, Sheepfold below Yeavering Bell

References

Bibliography

* Oswald A and Pearson S (2005) Yeavering Bell Hillfort. 98-126 in Frodsham and O’Brien. * Pearson S (1998) Yeavering Bell Hillfort, Northumberland. English Heritage: Archaeological Investigation Report Series AI/3/2001. * W & R Chambers (1869), the Book of Days, December 1

External links

Gefrin.com... Information, maps, diagrams, access routes and more about Yeavering, Gefrin and the hillforts in the north Cheviot hills
{{Iron Age hillforts in England Hill forts in Northumberland Hills of Northumberland Former populated places in Northumberland Kirknewton, Northumberland