Tynemouth Castle

The earliest evidence for occupation on the headland was uncovered by excavation in 1963. There survived the part remains of a large pre-Roman round house measuring 11.5m in diameter within a wall of upright posts set within a narrowly dug foundation trench. There was a doorway through the south wall. An outer concentric line of post holes which held the eave posts was situated 0.6m beyond the inner wall giving an overall diameter of 14m. Roman pottery found above the foundation trench indicated that the house had gone out of use by the late second century AD. It is thought that the house may belong to a much more extensive Iron Age settlement, possibly a promontory fort where the neck of land which joins the headland to the mainland would be defended by a palisade or a series of ditched defences.

The 1963 excavations at Tynemouth also uncovered the remains of a second circular house, 4.5m in diameter and of different form to the first. This house was not considered to be contemporary with the first, instead it was dated to the later Romano-British period. There was a concentration of Romano-British pottery in this area as well as a scatter across the rest of the excavated area and one of the pieces of pottery was dated to the late second century AD.