More information : [NU 06090168] Hurley Knowes [TI] (1)
Close to the cattle mart, part of which occupies Fletcher's Haugh, is a series of high green mounds bearing the name of "Hurley Knowes", which have been thought to be burial mounds, but to all appearance these tumuli-like knolls are alluvial deposits, but may have been used as the moot hills of the early inhabitants. (2)
"Sketch map of the Moot at Rothbury. Sep 27 1897". [Artist's name unintelligible; No text]. [Unsuitable for reproduction. Site is shewn in similar position to authority 1]. (3)
Hurley Knowes is the name applied to a short stretch of the south bank of the River Coquet, opposite the east end of Rothbury town. The bank is 11.0 m. high at this place and has been forested with pine trees. On the east side of Hurley Knowes, the bank takes a sharp turn to the south-east. Some 40.0 m. to the west is a small ravine rising from the river in a south-easterly direction. It has been partly filled up with soil and rubbish tippings. Between the ravine and the turn in the bank, a conical-shaped mound has been naturally formed. It appears to have been artificially isolated from the higher ground to the south, by the deepening of the depression on that side into a ditch some 20.0 m. wide and 3.0 m. deep, to give the mound a distinct rounded summit. There are no traces of further artificial earthworks on or around it. Local enquiries revealed no legends abouth the mound. (4)
Only one of the 'mounds' originally noted by Dixon survives, the others presumably having been destroyed by a small housing complex (not shown on OS 25" 1910). The survivor as described
by F1 is a flat-topped natural hillock isolated from the prominent
ridge of which it is a part by a short artificial ditch. This together with the declivity on the SW side affords a strong defensive
position which may well have served as a motte.Surveyed at 1:2500. (5) |