Drumlins...

A drumlin is a low oval mound or small hill, typically one of a group, consisting of compacted boulder clay moulded by past glacial action.  There are several in this part of County Durham.  Neolithic man used these raised places for worship, protection and burial purposes.  

As a child my grandparents took me to Sunderland Museum and one of the exhibits was a stone cist containing the skeleton of a child removed from this hill.  It scared the life out of me.  I now live quite close to this particular mound.  There is no doubt that Neolithic man foraged and hunted on land that is part of our gardens.  We know the hangman used a lane at the side of our land on his way to hang, draw and quarter criminals up at the crossroads.  There is evidence that Romans trod this way along 'Salter's Lanes' on their way to and from Segedunum on the Tyne.  

I often stand in the side garden looking over this site and wonder who walked through my garden over the centuries.