The history of the ‘Hill of Goats’: Revisiting Brian Hope-Taylor’s famous Yeavering excavations

More than 70 years ago, Brian Hope-Taylor led excavations at Yeavering in Northu mberland – investigations that have gone down in archaeological history, both for his skill in recording and analysing the scant remains of the royal palace of Edwin of Northumbria, and for illuminating a previously unlit period in early medieval history. Roger Miket’s new book Ad Gefrin traces the story of Hope-Taylor’s life and work, and recounts the latest thinking on the sites that he excavated. Chris Catling reports.

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Current Archaeology

February 4, 2026

When Brian Hope-Taylor died on 12 January 2001, Diana Murray – one of his former students and, at the time, Deputy Curator at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, a predecessor of Historic Environment Scotland (HES) – mounted an operation to salvage the archives stored at his home in Cambridge. Diana was later to report that, by the time she arrived at the property, a house-clearance firm had already disturbed the contents, which were destined to be consigned to a waiting skip. Worse, more than half of the recovered material had been stored in a very damp garage where it had suffered from water damage and mould. Even so, Diana was able to rescue mo

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