The area around Harbottle in the Coquet valley is steeped in myth and rich in history. Above the village there is a rocky outcrop with a 30ft sandstone erratic boulder that can be seen from quite a distance. This is the Drake Stone, also known as the Dragon's Stone, Draak's Stone, Draag's Stone or the Druid's Stone. A remnant of the Ice Age, it weighs 2,000 tonnes! The stone is said to have healing powers upon touch, and is a bit of a character - local legend claims that when workers attempted to drain the nearby Harbottle Lake, a voice boomed from the stone and threatened to flood the village below.
But there is more evidence of historic and prehistoric activity in the Harbottle area than just stories about druids and talking stones. In 1980s a Romano-Celtic shrine was found near South Yardhope (on a private land). It contains a really well-preserved rock carving of the Celtic god of hunt, Cocidius. Cocidius was worshiped in the Northern Britain in the Roman times, and some say that he was equivalent to Mars to the Britons, who most likely considered him a tribal god. There are at least 9 carvings of Cocidius and 25 dedications to him in the Hadrian's Wall area. The shrine near South Yardhope is a square rock chamber that originally had a roof and a carved stone bench, most likely for offerings. Just over a mile to the West of the shrine, there is a Roman marching camp, which lies along one of the Roman roads in the area, an east branch of the Dere Street (running from York (Eboracum) to the Antonine Wall in Scotland). The road links the Roman fort of High Rochester (Bremenium) on Dere Street with Whittingham on the Devil's Causeway (another Roman road, linking Portgate which lies North of Corbridge along the Hadrian's Wall, near the Onuum fort, with the port of Berwick-upon-Tweed), where there was a Roman fort at Learchild (Alavna).
There is evidence of even older activity nearby. On Holystone Common there is an area marked as "The Five Barrows" on the OS map. This is a Bronze Age (2300–800 BCE) cairn cemetery, which consists of at least 20 cairns from 3 to 19m in diameter, five of which are more prominent and gave name to the site. Several cairns were excavated in the 19th century and were found to contain charred human remains, a stone coffin, several decorated and plain Bronze Age pots, flint pieces and fragments of burnt bone pins. To the South of the cemetery, near the trig point of The Beacon, there is a row is standing stones known as The Five Kings.
The stones are aligned in a slight arc from South-West to North-East, and there are two more funerary cairns (North East and North West) nearby that yielded some Bronze Age pots in the 19th century excavation. The hills further South of the stones (Harehaugh Hill, Rimpside Hill and Whitchy Neuk) contain 3 hillforts and another cairn field. There is also another, most likely Iron Age, fort by Campville near Holystone woods, with a substantial earthwork or a dyke South of it, and a Bronze Age funerary cairn nearby.
The area near Holystone carries evidence of more recent history. There is a cave above Campville which is not easy to get to (especially with the recent damage by Storm Arwen) and which is one of the several caves rumoured to have housed the 17/18th century Scottish fugitive, cattle drover and hero, Rob Roy MacGregor. In the village of Holystone there is an early catholic holy well of the Scottish saint, St Ninian, also known as the Lady's Well. The well contains a rectangular tank which is thought to be of Roman origin, and stands along the old Roman road. The name "Lady's Well" most likely originates from the Augustinian nuns who lived in the nearby priory. Bede wrote that in 627CE Paulinus baptised 3000 Northumbrians at the well, however, there is no evidence to support this. Nearby there is also a holy well dedicated to another Scottish saint, St Mungo, which was erected in early 19th century. Sadly, there isn't much left of the Holystone priory, other than its name on the map. It was founded in the 12th century by the Umfravilles, lords of Redesdale, and disappeared with the dissolution of monasteries in 1539. Remains of it lie beneath the Holystone church (which was largely rebuilt in 19th century) and were excavated in 2015.
The Harbottle castle was also built in the 12th century by the Umfraville family, presumably as part of the borer defences against the Scots, and is one of the best examples of a motte and bailey castle in the county. The castle occupies a defensive position by the River Coquet, and controlled Clennell Street, one of the main roads across the border. In another example of the historic continuity often found in Northumberland, the mound on which the castle sits is likely much older and was used by the ancient Britons. The castle was captured in 1318 by Robert Bruce, dismantled, and rebuilt shortly after. It was last modernised in the 16th century, then fell into disrepair and the stones were used to build the nearby village.
There is a modern standing stone near the castle, with a poem written by a local school pupil, Felicity Lance, that sums up the turbulent history of the Border lands:
who made me
into a ruin
like an old city?
was it the soldiers
who rode out
on horseback?
was it my old enemy
the Scots?
or was it those
Border Reivers?
perhaps it was
just the centuries
passing.
Our walk route:
NOTE: A section of this walk from Drake's Stone to Cold Law follows faint paths and pathless moorland terrain, good navigation skills are necessary.
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