The Cheviot Hills (), or sometimes The Cheviots, are a range of

uplands Upland or Uplands may refer to: Geography *Hill, an area of higher land, generally *Highland, an area of higher land divided into low and high points *Upland and lowland, conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level *I ...

straddling the

Anglo-Scottish border The Anglo-Scottish border () is a border separating Scotland and England which runs for between Marshall Meadows Bay on the east coast and the Solway Firth in the west. The surrounding area is sometimes referred to as "the Borderlands". The ...

between

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 ...

and the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lot ...

. The English section is within the Northumberland National Park. The range includes The Cheviot (the highest hill), plus

Hedgehope Hill Hedgehope Hill is a mountain in the Cheviot Hills of north Northumberland in northeast England, and categorised as a Hewitt. At a height of and a distance of about from the Scottish border, it is best climbed from Langleeford in the Hartho ...

to the east, Windy Gyle to the west, and Cushat Law and Bloodybush Edge to the south. The hills are sometimes considered a part of the Southern Uplands of Scotland as they adjoin the uplands to the north. Since the Pennine Way runs through the region, the hills are also considered a part of the northern

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Common ...

although they are separated from the Cheviot Hills by the Tyne Gap, part of which lies within the southern extent of the Northumberland National Park. The Cheviot Hills are primarily associated with geological activity from approximately 480 to 360 million years ago, when the continents of

Avalonia Avalonia was a microcontinent in the Paleozoic era. Crustal fragments of this former microcontinent underlie south-west Great Britain, southern Ireland, and the eastern coast of North America. It is the source of many of the older rocks of West ...

and

Laurentia Laurentia or the North American Craton is a large continental craton that forms the ancient geological core of North America. Many times in its past, Laurentia has been a separate continent, as it is now in the form of North America, althoug ...

collided, resulting in extensive volcanic activity (the Caledonian orogeny) which created a granite outcrop surrounded by lava flows. The area enjoys a general right to roam under both the English Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 and the Scottish Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. The Southern Cheviots include the Otterburn Training Area, the UK's largest firing range, where the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

train up to 30,000 soldiers a year.

Description

The Cheviot is the highest hill in the range at . Other notable tops are

, Windy Gyle, Cushat Law and Bloodybush Edge. Of the hills mentioned, only Windy Gyle has its summit on the border. The rest are all within England. The English section is protected within the Northumberland National Park. Although many of the summits top , most have a relatively low prominence. Only three rise or more above the surrounding terrain: The Cheviot itself,

Shillhope Law Shillhope Law is a hill in the southern Cheviots, a range of hills in Northumberland, England. Shillhope Law is a relatively unremarkable member of this group; in common with its neighbours it has a small summit and steep, grassy sides falling ...

and

Housedon Hill Housedon Hill is a hill on the northwestern edge of the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland, England. It is the northernmost Marilyn in England, the summit lying only about 4 miles (7 km) from the Scottish border, which runs to the north a ...

, a small northern outlier (see Marilyn). To the south-west the Cheviots merge into the Kielder Forest group of hills. Breamish Valley Cheviot Hills - geograph

Breamish Valley Cheviot Hills - geograph

There is a broad split between the northern and the southern Cheviots. The former encompass most of the high ground and are pierced by five main valleys: *

College Valley The College Valley is one of five cuttings into the Cheviot Hills. The valley is owned by College Valley Estates which in turn is funded by a trust created by Sir James Knott MP. The valley is spectacularly beautiful and affords a serene ...

* Harthope *

Breamish The Breamish is a river in Northumberland, England, which rises on Comb Fell in the Northumberland National Park on the southern side of The Cheviot. It is one of the eight rivers rising in the Cheviot Hills, the others being the College Valle ...

* Bowmont * Heatherhope valley The southern Cheviot hills encompass the slopes running down to the valley of the river Coquet.

Geology

At the centre of the range is an outcrop of Early

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, wh ...

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

, the Cheviot Pluton, which is surrounded by

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleoz ...

and Devonian arc andesitic lava flows,

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock ...

s and

agglomerate Agglomerate (from the Latin ''agglomerare'' meaning "to form into a ball") is a coarse accumulation of large blocks of volcanic material that contains at least 75% bombs. Volcanic bombs differ from volcanic blocks in that their shape records flu ...

s of the Cheviot Volcanic Formation. These are in turn intruded by a swarm of igneous dykes with a predominantly calc-alkaline chemistry arranged radially around the

pluton In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...

. Both the pluton and the volcanic rocks owe their origin to the northward

subduction Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, ...

of the

oceanic crust Oceanic crust is the uppermost layer of the oceanic portion of the tectonic plates. It is composed of the upper oceanic crust, with pillow lavas and a dike complex, and the lower oceanic crust, composed of troctolite, gabbro and ultramafic ...

attached to the former micro-continent of

beneath the

n plate in the course of the Caledonian orogeny during the

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. T ...

and

periods. The surrounding lower ground is formed from Carboniferous Limestone, though much of it is obscured by superficial deposits of

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million year ...

age.The topology and climate of Northumberland National Park

History

Hillside and woodland plantations west of Hethpool - geograph

To the south of the Cheviot hills was the site of the Battle of Otterburn in 1388, and possibly to a separate bloody battle between English and Scottish forces, after which only 110 people survived, which is described in "

The Ballad of Chevy Chase "The Ballad of Chevy Chase" is an English ballad, catalogued as Child Ballad 162 (Roud 223Sehere/ref>). There are two extant ballads under this title, both of which narrate the same story. As ballads existed within oral tradition before being wri ...

". (Note – the origin of the border skirmishes between Percy, the Earl of Northumberland, and the Scottish Earl of Douglas, may have been a hunt that strayed into Scotland and was interpreted as an invasion.) Two other related battles were the

Battle of Homildon Hill The Battle of Holmedon Hill or Battle of Homildon Hill was a conflict between English and Scottish armies on 14 September 1402 in Northumberland, England. The battle was recounted in Shakespeare's ''Henry IV, part 1''. Although Humbleton Hil ...

, fought within the Cheviots near Wooler in 1402, and the Battle of Hedgeley Moor, fought north of

Powburn Powburn is a small village on the A697 in Northumberland, England about south of Wooler and northwest of Alnwick. Landmarks The Devil's Causeway passes through the village and continues north under the A697 road crossing the River Till. The ...

in 1464.

Access

Most of the range on the English side is mapped as 'open country' and hence there is a general right to roam over it as prescribed in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. Traditional rights of access in Scotland, bolstered by the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, provide for similar access for the public to the north of the border. In addition, a sparse network of public bridleways and footpaths stretches around the area, often providing useful means of access from the lower ground onto the open hills. The northernmost leg of the Pennine Way runs from Byrness in England to Kirk Yetholm in Scotland. It is the longest, and most exposed, on the whole of the national trail. The Way follows the high level Border Ridge (literally the England–Scotland boundary fence) for nearly after the ascent to the ridge from Byrness. The terrain is boggy and remote, and two mountain refuge huts are situated on the Way for those too tired or weather-beaten to continue. The town of Wooler in the Cheviot Fringe (the lowlands bordering the hills to the east) is often cited as the "Gateway to the Cheviots" as it is the largest town in the Cheviot region; the town also has easy access being on the major A697 road. Many walking routes have been established, such as: * Breamish Valley Hillfort Trail * Three Forts Foray, a 5.5 mile walk that takes roughly 3.5 hours to complete. The walking difficulty has been graded as moderate. * Humbleton Hillfort * Ring Chesters Round * Hethas Hike * Hethpool to the Curr, a 11.5 mile walk that takes roughly 7 hours to complete. Graded as strenuous. * Barrowburn Family Walk * Harthope Valley Walk * Yeavering Bell Walk * Hethpool Wild Goat Walk * Linhope Spout Walk * Hethpool Linn and Yeavering Bell Walk * Kirknewton Hillfort Trail * Dunsdale to West Hill * College Valley Walk * The Shepherds Cairn Walk * Reaveley Farn Family Stroll.

Otterburn Army Training Estate

The Otterburn Army Training Estate (ATE) covers about of the Southern Cheviots, approximately 23% of the Northumberland National Park. It is owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and used for training some 30,000 soldiers a year. Otterburn is the UK's largest firing range, and is in frequent use — artillery can be clearly heard from

Lindisfarne Lindisfarne, also called Holy Island, is a tidal island off the northeast coast of England, which constitutes the civil parish of Holy Island in Northumberland. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important ...

to the north-east and Fontburn Reservoir in the south. Because of this, recreational use of the area is restricted, although it is possible for the public to use some parts of the estate subject to the relevant bylaws. The MoD publishes a booklet, ''Walks on Ministry of Defence Lands'', which offers advice on this matter (see link below). Otterburn Public Information Leaflet pdf
hsmt.infoNicholas Schoon (26 April 1997

''The Independent''Northumberland National Park – Otterburn Ranges
northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk

Peaks over 500 metres in the Cheviot Hills

The peaks marked with a warning sign ( Nuvola apps important

) lie within the danger area of the ATE Otterburn artillery range.

References

External links

–

{{Authority control