Slate Hill Settlement

Slate Hill Settlement is an archaeological site in Northumberland, England, near the village of Bolam and about 7 miles west of Morpeth [1]. The site, a defended settlement dating from the Iron Age, is a scheduled monument [1]. The site is regarded as an example of a type of defended settlement of the Iron Age, first constructed in the 7th to 5th centuries BC in the northern uplands of what is now England, sometimes located on hilltops [1]. On Slate Hill there are four concentric ramparts, terraced on the sloping hillside, in a semicircle forming on the north and west sides of an enclosure; quarrying has affected the east side where one rampart remains [1]. The ramparts, of stone and earth, are about 5 metres (16 ft) wide and 1.4 metres (4 ft 7 in) high [1]. On the south side a steep slope provides defence [1]. The enclosure within the defences is about 98 metres west to east and 62 metres north to south [1].