A Guide to the Geology of the District Around Alnwick, Northumberland

( With a Report of the Field Meeting at Alnwick , 22 nd –24 th May , 1954) I. Introduction: Location, General Succession, Topography The “Alnwick Area” of this guide is essentially the eastern part of the Cheviot Hills and the country to the North Sea between Amble and Bamburgh, with an extension southwards into the Rothbury-Alwinton area. It is largely covered by the 1-in. sheets 4 and 6 (new series) of the Geological Survey of England and Wales (with some extension for comparative purposes into the area of sheets, 3, 5 and 9) and by the 1-in. sheets 1–4 of the Popular Edition of the Ordnance Survey. The region is one of diversified relief, rising westwards to the Cheviot (2676 ft. O.D.); Hedgehope (2348 ft. O.D.) is prominent in the Cheviot Hills skyline from various parts of the Alnwick district. The drainage of the eastern and northern parts of the Cheviot massif is largely by the River Till, which arises south of The Cheviot as the River Breamish; this collects the Roddam and Lilburn Burns as it turns north and is then termed the Till. Near Wooler it receives the Harthope Burn—Wooler Water and then the River Glen, which is the collector for the northern and north-western drainage from the Cheviots, before passing north-west to join the Tweed. Once outside the Cheviot mass this drainage generally follows the belt of the Cementstones outcrop except for the big eastward bend of the Till east of Wooler. The River Aln drains only a tiny …