Yeavering Bell

Coordinates: 55°33′25″N 2°06′50″W / 55.557°N 2.114°W / 55.557; -2.114

Yeavering Bell is a twin-peaked hill near the River Glen in Northumberland, England, to the west of Wooler, and forming part of the Cheviot Hills. The hill, 361 metres above sea level, is encircled by the wall of a late-prehistoric Hillfort, a tribal centre of the Votadini called in Brythonic and Old Welsh Din Gefron, from which the name stems (Old English *geafringa-).

The hill fort encloses an area of approximately 12 acres (4.9 ha) and is enclosed by a stone wall, upwards of 10 ft (3.0 m) thick, having four entrances into it, one of which is defended by a guard-house; and within this area is an inner fort, excavated out of the rock, of an oval form, measuring 13 ft (4.0 m) across at the widest part. On the sides of the hill, and in a high valley between the Bell and the next hill, called Whitelaw, there are many remains of stone huts rudely flagged, some in groups surrounded by rampiers (ramparts), and others isolated. Barrows, too, are numerous here.

Yeavering

Coordinates: 55°34′05″N 2°06′18″W / 55.568°N 2.105°W / 55.568; -2.105

Yeavering /ˈjɛvəriŋ/ is a very small hamlet in the north-east corner of the civil parish of Kirknewton in the English county of Northumberland. It is located on the River Glen at the northern edge of the Cheviot Hills. It is noteworthy as the site of a large Anglo-Saxon settlement that archaeologists have interpreted as being one of the seats of royal power held by the kings of Bernicia in the 7th century CE.

Evidence for human activity in the vicinity has been found from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age periods, although it would be in the Iron Age that significant settlement first occurred at Yeavering. In this period, a heavily inhabited hillfort was constructed on Yeavering Bell which appears to have been a major settlement centre at the time.

According to Book 2 Chapter 14 of the Ecclesiastical History of the Venerable Bede (680–735), in the year 627 Bishop Paulinus of York accompanied the Northumbrian king Edwin and his queen Æthelburg to their royal vill (the Latin term is villa regia), Adgefrin, where Paulinus spent 36 days preaching and baptising converts in the river Glen. The placename Gefrin, which is a Brittonic name meaning 'hill of the goats', survives as the modern Yeavering.