Day 2 in the historic border region of Northumberland, another bright breezy day, with more cloud than the previous day.
The area is steeped in history, with many of the hills having the remains of iron age hill forts on the summits, which pre date the Roman occuption of Britain 2000yrs ago. Todays peaks are Yeavering Bell and Newton Tors, (which has a number of summits). Yeavering Bell is the largest hill fort in Northumberland, enclosing some 5.2 hectares. Further reading can be seen on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeavering_Bell
We started the walk from Old Yeavering and soon left the main track, to take a steep path up the hillside and through the ring of stones that once formed the outer wall to the hill fort and up onto the twin summits. From here there are extensive views across to the coast and up the surrounding valleys and peaks and into Scotland, so it is easy to see why this small peak was chosen for a hill fort. After a brief stop, we descended SW to a col, crossed St Cuthberts Way, an ancient pilgrims way from Melrose Abbey to Lindisfarne (Holy Island). We then ascended Eastern Tor 438m, one of several peaks on Newton Tors, then continued SW steadily uphill for about 2km to the summit of Newton Tors and the slightly lower Western Tor. Here we had good views all around the northern side of the Cheviot hills and across into Scotland. We also encountered several groups of wild cheviot goats that roam these hills. To return we retraced our steps to St Cuthberts Way and then headed N on this track, until we joined the track back to Old Yeavering.