Tag: Akeld

Highburn House, Wooler, Northumberland

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Cup-and-Ring Stone (lost):  OS Grid Reference – NT 98491 28424

Archaeology & History

Highburn House C&R, 2015

This carving was rediscovered by rock art explorer Jan Broewer in September, 2007, a few hundred yards out of Wooler on the way to Akeld and Kirknewton, in the field on the right-hand side of the road, on the embankment just a few inches above the waters of the High Burn.  On a recent visit here by Tom Cleland and I, despite us rummaging amidst the gorse and other herbage all along the edge of the waters, we were unable to locate the carving and presume that it has either been destroyed or re-housed in someone’s garden, living a more comfortable life.  We certainly hope it’s the latter!

Sketch of the design
Home of the lost carving

It’s design is nothing special: merely a singular, albeit scruffy cup-and-ring, with two other distinct pecked cup-marks and, possibly, a third shallow one just to the side of the cup-and-ring (but this is, in my opinion, highly suspect).  The stone was obviously not in its original position when Jan first found it, and would seem to have come originally from the slope above the stream where a number of earthfast stones can be found.  The numerous scratches across its surface shows that it’s been hit a few times by some (probably) metallic objects, or perhaps horses hooves, thus dislodging it from the slope above and rolling into the spot where Jan found it.  Anyhow, we presently don’t know where it is or what’s become of it.  Does anyone in Wooler know where it’s living?

Acknowledgements:  Huge thanks to Pete Chattaway for use of his photo; and to Tom Cleland for helping the search party!

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian 

Humbleton Hill, Wooler, Northumberland

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Hillfort:  OS Grid Reference – NT 96706 28252

Also Known as:

  1. Cup and Saucer Camp

Archaeology & History

Humbleton Hill

On our first visit to Wooler, in seeking out (and not finding!) a cup-and-ring stone alongside the old burn just on the northern side of town, we looked up at the ridged hillside of Humbleton Hill ahead of us and proclaimed, something along the lines of: “That look’s like something man-made up there!”  And so it turned out.  But the heat of the summer kept us from ascending the hill, so just an old account must be penned, from the quill of the great rock art pioneer George Tate (Home & Tate 1857) who, following a visit here in May 1852 with various members of the Berwickshire Natural History Society, penned the following:

“On the north side of Humbleton burn is a conical hill truncated at the top, and rising abruptly about 100 feet above the level of the burn; the slope, though considerable, is less steep on the other sides. This was one of the strongholds of the ancient Hritons. A rampier (now obliterated) ran around that part of the hill not protected by the ravine of the burn. The summit of the hill is 180 yards in circumference, having a hollow in the centre of the area; it is surrounded by a rampier of stone and earth, which is yet in some parts 3 feet high. This entrenchment is commonly called ‘The Cup and Saucer Camp’.”

The Hillfort itself is in very good condition overall, is very extensive and has a very clear series of walled ramparts all round the summit of the hill.  It has yet to be excavated.

Folklore

The local folk-name given to this old hillfort—the Cup and Saucer Camp—related to the shape and lay-out of the enclosure, and with it, the tradition that the chiefs of the tribe inhabited the topmost enclosed section of the hillfort: the so-called ‘Cup’; whilst the tribal familes inhabited the realms immmediately outside and below the chief’s domain: the so-called surrounding ‘Saucer’.  On the northern edges of the outer ‘saucer’ walls are several ‘hut circles’ (for want of a better term), that would house people, or their animals—or both.

References:

  1. Home, Robert & Tate, G., “Address to the Members at the Anniversary Meeting, held at Embleton, Sept 8, 1852,” in Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, volume 3, 1857.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian