Huckhoe Settlement is an archaeological site in

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 on ...

, England, near the village of Bolam and about west of

Morpeth Morpeth may refer to: *Morpeth, New South Wales, Australia ** Electoral district of Morpeth, a former electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in New South Wales * Morpeth, Ontario, Canada * Morpeth, Northumberland, England, UK ** Morpeth (UK ...

. The site shows occupation, in at least four phases, dating from the early

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

(6th century BC) to the post-Roman period (6th century AD). It is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

Description

The site is on an oval promontory, steep on the north and west sides, above a tributary of the

River Wansbeck The River Wansbeck runs through the county of Northumberland, England. It rises above Sweethope Lake, Lough on the edge of Fourlaws Forest in the area known locally as The Wanneys (Great Wanney Crag, Little Wanney Crag; thus the "Wanneys Beck") ...

. There is a low earth and stone bank forming an enclosure, north-east to south-west by north-west to south-east, with an entrance of width on the east side, and slight traces inside of roundhouses and courtyard walls. This is thought to be a re-occupation in the Romano-British period, of an

defended settlement. The visible remains of the earlier settlement are two ramparts: the outer is wide and high on the south and east sides, with traces of an external ditch, about outside the inner rampart.

Excavation

There was excavation from 1955 to 1957. Traces of a

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymology ''Palisade' ...

d enclosure were uncovered, consisting of three concentric palisades of oak. A sample was radio-carbon dated to about 580 BC: the early Iron Age. Similar palisaded hilltop enclosures have been found in north-east England and southern Scotland; they are the earliest type of defended settlement in the area. They indicate that there was much woodland here at that time. The excavation also found that it was probably an

iron-working Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ...

site during the Romano-British period, as iron slag and a probable iron-worker's hearth were found. There were also remains of rectangular buildings, interpreted as dating from the post-Roman period. Finds from the excavation included sherds of Romano-British pottery of the 2nd to 4th century, and sherds dating to the late 5th or early 6th century.

Archaeological sites nearby

* The Poind and his Man, a Bronze Age burial mound * Shaftoe Crags Settlement, a Romano-British defended settlement * Slate Hill Settlement, an Iron Age defended settlement

References

{{reflist Scheduled monuments in Northumberland Archaeological sites in Northumberland Belsay