Alwinton : Bronze Age (c. 2000 BC – 700 BC)

By the Bronze Age, small farming communities are likely to have been well established on the hill slopes overlooking the Coquet valley. Much of the evidence for this period comes from cairns, often covering a stone slab-lined chamber known as a cist, in which Bronze Age societies buried their dead.

A great number of these are known from the sandstone uplands, particularly around the summit of Lordenshaw and Simonside to the east, though many were excavated without record in the 19th century. In the Alwinton study area, the cairn 160m north east of Hosedon Linn (catalogue number NT 918082) is unusual in form, comprising a raised central platform 4m in diameter surrounded by a 3m wide ditch, enclosed within an outer stone ring. In common with many other burial cairns of the period, this example is situated on a hill slope commanding extensive views to the south.

Not all cairns of this period contained burials. Cairns occur in considerable numbers as a result of field clearance in association with early agricultural remains. These are much more difficult to date, though, on the basis of their association with Bronze Age settlements or burial cairns, a Bronze Age date can sometimes be established (Higham, 1986, 92). Clearance cairns are known from Alwinton parish, for example at Heathery Hill (NT 876061), and on the east slopes of Inner Hill (NT 883068), those there is no associated settlement surviving at either of these sites.

The defended settlement of probable Iron Age date at Barrow Hill (NT 914059) is associated with a field system and cairnfield containing a Bronze Age burial cairn, and it is possible that the settlement may have had its origins in the Bronze Age. Dixon (1903, 110) refers to a series of “clearly defined benches or ridges” on the lower slopes of Lord’s Seat (NT 913079) which he believed were clearly connected with a “primitive system of cultivation” far earlier in date than the medieval ridge and furrow cultivation he observed in the village. Though the SMR holds no record of these, his description would suggest that these are cultivation terraces, which in some cases may be of Bronze Age date (Topping, 1983).

East of Uplaw Knowe (NT 914084) a linear earth bank runs along a ridge for around 150m. This feature is known as a cross dyke, and may be a prehistoric territorial boundary. Though very difficult to date precisely, a Bronze Age date is a possibility (The Keys to the Past).