Walk: Five Breamish Forts

📌 Cheviot Hills, Northumberland
★★

East of Ingram, the long Breamish Valley is perhaps best known for its riverside picnic spots and access to the waterfall at Linhope Spout. However, it is also surrounded by an astonishing number of hillforts, homesteads, cultivation terraces and other signs of ancient human occupation. The waymarked Breamish Valley Hillfort Trail is perhaps the best introduction to this fascinating landscape, visiting five hillforts south of Bulby’s Wood car park. On a clear day there are extensive views further into the Cheviot Hills, with the Cunyan Crags tors on Dunmoor Hill particularly prominent.

📷 Chronological photo guide

🌍 Location

📌 Start / finish at Bulby’s Wood, minor road 1 mi west of Ingram

🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NO 008164

🛰️ GPS coordinates: 55.441194,-1.989231

❌ No public transport within 1 mi

🚗 Bulby’s Wood car park

📝 Key info

▶ 7 km / 4 mi | ▲ 310 m | ⌛ 2.5-3.5 hr

Features: 🏰 Brough Law Hillfort; 🏰 Middle Dean Hillfort; △ Cochrane Pike (335 m) & hillfort; 🏰 Wether Hill Hillfort; 🌾 Middle Dean cultivation terraces; 🏰 Ingram Hill Hillfort

⬤ Moderate | Waymarked tracks & paths, mostly good going on grass but some steep, rougher or boggy sections. Exposed terrain, navigation could be difficult in poor visibility.

➡️ Anticlockwise circuit: start – Brough Law Hillfort – Middle Dean Hillfort – Cochrane Pike & hillfort – Wether Hill Hillfort – Middle Dean below Corbie Cleugh – Ingram Hill Hillfort – start

🔗 Official trail leaflet: northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk

Download file for GPS

🥾 On our last visit

Wildlife: Sheep & lambs, lizards, pheasants, oystercatchers. Cuckoos & lapwings heard. Deer in an enclosure below Ingram Hill Hillfort.

Weather: Mostly sunny with cloudier skies to the northwest, light breeze with temperature in high teens.

May 2023