Cheviot Hills

The Cheviot Hills is a range of rolling hills straddling the England–Scotland border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders.

There is a broad split between the northern and the southern Cheviots. The former encompass most of the high ground and are pierced by five main valleys:

• College Valley
• Harthope
• Breamish
• Bowmont
• and the Heatherhope valley.

The southern Cheviot hills encompass the slopes running down to the valley of the river Coquet.

The Cheviot is the highest hill in the range at 2,674 ft (815 m). Other notable tops are Hedgehope Hill, Windy Gyle, Cushat Law and Bloodybush Edge. Of the hills mentioned, only Windy Gyle has its summit on the border. The rest are all within England. The English section is protected within the Northumberland National Park.

The centre of the range comprises a Devonian granite outcrop surrounded by Silurian and Devonian andesite lava flows on each side. These are in turn intruded by igneous dykes arranged radially around the Cheviot pluton. The surrounding lower ground is formed from Carboniferous Limestone though much of it is obscured by superficial deposist of Quaternary age.

The topography of the hills leads to the summits generally having low relative height. Only three are Marilyns; The Cheviot itself, Shillhope Law and Housedon Hill, a small northern outlier. To the south-west the Cheviots merge into the Kielder Forest group of hills.

The hills were the site of a battle between English and Scottish forces in The Ballad of Chevy Chase.