The first day of a new project can always be a daunting one, especially when you find yourself in a entirely new landscape tasked with getting to grips with its complexities in the space of just a few hours.

We began the day with the obligatory safety and risk assessment briefing courtesy of Caron before signing our lives away for the upcoming fortnight of work. After this briefing Caron swiftly departed to partake in the usual revelry of Newcastle University graduation day, leaving us in the more than capable hands of Richard Newman, who tasked us with identifying some key features of our surrounding landscape via OS maps of both past and present. Needless to say we failed this task pretty miserably….. in our defence though we somehow managed to correctly identify 4 features they just happened to be in the wrong map…it was a Monday morning after all! Upon failing to come to grips with our surroundings via the form of maps Richard thought it best he throw us in at the deep end by taking us up into the hills. This being said we couldn’t have asked for a better guide who very ably guided us Cumbria newbies around part of our survey site, as well as giving us a detailed lowdown on the area’s history, even if, by his own admission, his level of detail sometimes went miles over our collective heads!

After a not so long day out on the slopes we arrived back in West Hall for a quick tea pit stop before heading off to take a quick nose around Bewcastle, site of our nearest Roman fort and of the Bewcastle Cross.

All this excitement began to take its toll at around 6:30 where upon the arrival of an Italian food feast, consisting of, but not restricted to, an entire baguette of garlic bread each, tiredness began to set in, to the extent that not even the intellectual stimulation of University Challenge followed by Only Connect could perk our collective attention for very long!

All in all we’re only one day in and we’re already knackered! Here’s hoping that we get used to the hard work, long walks and busy days…and if the sun stays it’ll certainly keep us all happy!

Our archaeology students are learning the art of reading the landscape today, looking for clues into past land use. They are out and about becoming familiar with Anglo-Scottish border of Cumbria.

Welcome to our new blog. A small team from the McCord Centre for Landscape at Newcastle University, led by Caron Newman and Richard Newman are about to start a new landscape survey of part of Cumbria between Hadrian’s Wall and the Scottish border. Over the next two weeks we will do a lot of walking and exploring and will hopefully record many new archaeological sites.

Thanks to Newcastle University’s Institute of Social Renewal and the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society for providing us with financial support. We are a small team, including four Newcastle University students and one new graduate and we hope to tell new stories about the Anglo-Scottish border. The whole team will post photos, discoveries and thoughts during the course of the fieldwork.

Let’s hope for some good weather!