Simonside Hills RSS

Simonside is one of the friendliest hills in Northumberland.

It is 429 metres, two miles south of Rothbury, with a flagstone path across the moor and a car park at the bottom. Thousands of people walk it every year without incident.

Which is exactly why the callout reports are worth reading.

Few Northumberland landscapes compress so much later prehistory into such a small compass as the slopes around Rothbury.

On the north side of the valley sit Old Rothbury Hillfort and West Hills Camp. On the south side are Tosson Burgh and Lordenshaws.

All four occupy carefully chosen spurs, knolls and terrace edges above the middle reaches of the River Coquet, and all are now protected as Scheduled Monuments.