06/09/2026
More than 2,000 years ago, an Iron Age community built a fortified settlement on this hill above the River Breamish.
Dating from around the 3rd century BC, Brough Law was enclosed by a huge dry-stone rampart, in places more than 16 feet thick, surrounding an area roughly 223 feet long. Within it stood circular houses where generations of people lived, worked and looked out across the valley.
The fort was part of a much wider prehistoric landscape. Around ten hillforts have been identified along the Breamish Valley, alongside ancient settlements, field systems and burial sites — evidence that these apparently empty hills were once home to thriving communities.
More than two millennia later, much of the rampart still survives.
It’s particularly striking from the air. What appears from the ground to be a scatter of stone suddenly becomes the unmistakable outline of a settlement built here before the Roman conquest of Britain.
The last two shots were almost mono-coloured in the morning light, which made them kind of interesting to my eye
Brough Law — and the landscape it has overlooked for more than 2,000 years.
