Black Dyke

In the civil parish of Bardon Mill; Bellingham; Greystead; Haydon; Simonburn; Wark.
In the historic county of Northumberland (Modern Authority of Northumberland, 1974 county of Northumberland).

Of date, the Black Dyke stretches between the North and South Tynes cutting off an area of 48,000 acres. Possibly constructed to prevent cattle raiding. It was seen as an earthwork and mapped from air photographs. Visible as an earthen bank with a ditch on the west side, this linear boundary is sometimes seen intermittently and now has a later stone wall running on top for most of its course. In some places this wall now forms the parish boundary. The northern part of the course of this feature may now lie within an extensive forestry plantation. Although the air photography which was available to the project included photographs taken before the creation of the plantations, nevertheless the feature could not be identified to the north of Whitelee Cleugh. This monument is usually dated as prehistoric but PastScape does give a possible medieval date as well although the fact that parish boundaries follow the line of the dyke suggests it pre dates the medieval period in construction although possible medieval maintaince and use cannot be total excluded.

This site has been described as a;
Linear Defence or Dyke.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Questionable.
Earthworks remains.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NY806647

Modern Map from Good for landscape form and features	Modern Map from Good for general location
Air Photo from	1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 1066037, 1393614

County Sites and Monuments Record number; N6951, N7854

• Web site links
  • http://www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PDetail?readform&PRN=N6951
    http://www.keystothepast.info/durhamcc/K2P.nsf/K2PDetail?readform&PRN=N7854
• Journal Articles
  • George R B Spain, 1921, 'The Black Dyke in Northumberland' Archaeologia Aeliana [ser3] Vol19 p120-168
    Haigh, D. and Savage, M., 1984. Archaeologia Aeliana [ser5] Vol12 p68
• Other sources and unpublished works (Theses, in-house reports and other such)
  • Long, B., 1988. List of Ancient Monuments, The Kielder Forests