Discovering Our Hillfort Heritage

The north of Northumberland National Park contains landscapes virtually unparalleled in Britain for the variety and quality of the archaeological sites preserved within them. This fact obviously provides us with tremendous potential for academic study and it also means that there is much to interest and enthral both the specialist and non-specialist alike.

Hillforts are some of the most spectacular and impressive, but still enigmatic, elements of the Park’s rich archaeological resource. They are settlements enclosed within massive dry stone walls or earth and stone ramparts, and of a size that would accommodate perhaps one or two extended families. They date to around 300 BC and some 50 examples lie within the National Park boundary.

It was the recognition of the large number of hillforts inside the National Park, along with their fantastic preservation, that led the Northumberland National Park Authority to set up the Discovering Our Hillfort Heritage Project. This was an initiative designed to address key issues relating to conservation, research, public access, public interpretation, and education.