Multivallate hillfort, west of Harehaugh

The hillfort near Harehaugh is well preserved and a good example of its type. Its situation at a strategic point in Coquetdale suggests it was a hillfort of some importance. Additionally it is one of a group of hillforts in this part of Coquetdale and will add greatly to our understanding of prehistoric settlement in the region.

The monument includes a hillfort of Iron Age date situated on the highest part of a promontory overlooking the valleys of the Harehaugh and Grasslees Burns. The encircling ramparts enclose an oval area measuring 160m east-west by 100m north-south. The fort, of more than one phase, is divided internally by a scarp with a central entrance into a western enclosure and an eastern extension. The superbly preserved western end of the fort is surrounded by four substantial earth and stone ramparts separated from each other by three ditches. The ramparts are a maximum of 4m above the ditches which are 1.2m wide. Slight traces of a single rampart are visible along the northern edge of the fort. The south and east sides are protected by two ramparts and a ditch. The outer rampart is 5m wide and stands 1.3m high above a medial ditch 2.5m wide. The inner rampart, now a substantial steep scarp, stands 3m high above the medial ditch. Outside these defences are traces of an outer ditch and a slight counter-scarp bank. There are two entrances, one on the north side and one on the south side.

Lying at 168m OD on a promontory overlooking the confluence of the Grasslees Burn and the River Coquet, a multivallate hillfort occupied from the 4th-1st century BC. The surface remains are sub-oval in form, measuring 160m E-W by 100m N-S enclosing approximately 1.5ha. It evolved from an earlier smaller enclosure of 0.6ha with a central entrance, the visible remains of which form an arc running centrally through the hillfort. It lies on the highest part of an E-W ridge and comprises four turf-covered earth and stone ramparts in the W surviving up to 4m above three 1.2m wide medial ditches. Two ramparts lie in the S and E with a medial ditch between. The inner rampart survives as a steep scarp lying 3m above the 2.5m wide ditch, with the outer rampart 5m wide and 1.3m high about the ditch. In the N only slight traces of a single rampart remain, augmented by the natural slope. Traces of an outer ditch and counterscarp have also been recorded in the S and E. The results from a trial excavation in 1994 suggest two or three phases of rampart construction possibly with a dump of glacial material upcast from the ditch in phase I. This was faced with stone forming a 2.2m wide rampart in phase IIa and might have been contemporary with a palisade slot cut to hold a wooden breastwork. Fills from the ditch were seen by Waddington et al. (1998) to indicate episodes of silting and turf build up from several phases of occupation. Conservation-led archaeological work was carried out in 2001-2 to assess the level of damage that was occurring through sheep and rabbits and bracken roots (summarized in Carlton 2002). Magnetometry and resistance surveys (Biggins 2001) also showed two or more phases of construction beginning with the 0.6ha oval univallate enclosure which had measured 100m E-W by 70m N-S. Three ditches in the centre of the enclosure were seen to align on this earthwork. The central ditch continued southwards and was contiguous with the southern enclosure. The flanking ditches terminate approximately 10m from what it considered to be an original entrance in the W. The eastern sector of the enclosure had fewer features and was thought to have had an agricultural function. In the W a number of anomalies were recorded including pits and circular features although the evidence for buildings is slight. The smaller enclosure was later extended on the S and W sides by a larger enclosure. Further excavations at this time across the inner ramparts lent support to the construction phases identified by (Waddington et. al. 1998), although rabbit damage prevented this being confirmed in all trenches. Four breaks occur in the rampart, two of which carry a track that runs NE-SW. A further break in the NW is possibly original. A possible Bronze Age cairn lies within the enclosure in the SW. Environmental and other deposits indicated a range of domestic and industrial practices with iron slag recovered from six of the eleven trenches suggesting iron working, probably smelting as well as smithing was being carried out (ibid. 103). Radiocarbon analysis has confirmed two distinct phases of activity between the mid-4th and mid-1st century BC, with artefactual evidence suggesting an earlier, Neolithic presence on the hill, the shale armlet indicative of possible early Roman activity. Conservation work on the ramparts began in 2015. The site is recorded on 1866 1:10,560 OS mapping. Scheduled.

Source: Lock, Gary and Ralston, Ian. 2024. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. Available at: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk (CC BY-SA 4.0)