450 Mr. Tate on Yevering Bell, &c. 



STONE CIRCLE AT THREE STONE BURN, NORTHUMBERLAND. 



There are several stone circles in Northumberland, but the 

 largest is at Three Stone Burn in a bleak and lonely valley 

 among the Cheviot hills. It stands about four hundred 

 yards to the westward of the farm house, on flat peaty ground, 

 covered over with heather, on the north side of a brawling 

 burn, which when swollen Avith rain is a wild and destruc- 

 tive torrent. Grim and rugged crags of the Cunnion bound 

 this broad valley in the south, while the tamer outline of 

 Dunmore curves towards the glen between it and the rounded 

 Hedgehope ; westward the ground slopes steeply to the ridge 

 of Housey Crag, behind which the broad-backed Cheviot is 

 seen ; Tathy Crag is the crest of another hill on the north- 

 west, which sw^eeps round to the Middle ton crags bounding 

 the valley on the north; and through its opening on the 

 east, a view is obtained of the sandstone ridges forming the 

 hills of Beanley and Alnwick Moor. Damp and boggy, this 

 valley does not afford distinct traces of an ancient population, 

 such as are found in the dry hopes and valleys around 

 Yevering. 



Before making excavations into the Three Stone Burn 

 circle, eight stones only were visible — five standing upright 

 and the others prostrate. Trenches were cut along the cir- 

 cumference of the circle and around some of the stones ; two 

 were cut at right angles through the centre, and other trenches 

 were cut parallel to these, down to the natural surface and in 

 some parts below it. The examination of this circle was 

 therefore amply suificient. 



Five other stones part of the circle were found buried be- 

 neath the peat ; so that as now seen it is formed of a single 

 row of thirteen stones. The circumference is 340 feet ; but 

 the shape is elliptical, the longest diameter, from east to 

 west, being 112 feet, and the shortest, from north to south, 

 96 feet. The plan on the next page shews the relative posi- 

 tion of the stones, and indicates those which are still upright. 

 Their distance from each other varies from 13 feet 2 inches to 

 31 feet, excepting on the south-east, where there is a wide gap 

 of 57 feet — perhaps one stone may be wanting here. Eighty 

 years ago however, there was the same number, and eleven 

 were then visible ; but tradition said that there were origin- 

 ally 12 stones, and that the discoverer of the lost one would 

 find beneath it a hoard of gold. The tenant, then occupying 

 the farm, with at least a half faith if not entire reliance on 



