Low hills south of Houky Hill

Image: © Andrew Curtis Taken: 12 Nov 2020

Houky Hill is one of a ridge of low hills of the Great Whin Sill which rise from farmland (mainly pasture) to the south-west of Quarry House. The summit of Houky Hill itself is only 225m and is on the west side of the boundary which divides that farm from the farm of North Heugh to the north. The Ordnance Survey Name Book for Thockrington parish (c1860) describes Houky Hill (just visible here on the left and in Image) as: "A slight eminence on the North Heugh farm. A herb famous for curing coughs is said to grow upon it". http://namebooks.org.uk/browse/main/?OSref=420&Page=35 The Scottish word, howk, means to dig the soil, or to uproot or remove from the ground by digging. Perhaps this could also refer to the collection of a medicinal plant. A rare aromatic umbelliferous plant still grows here, Spignel (Meum athamanticum) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meum_athamanticum This plant is recorded as nationally scarce, near threatened, and locally rare. The low Whin Sill hillock of Houky Hill in Northumberland is one of about 10 sites where it is known in England and was the first recorded site in Britain. There were estimated to be 2100 plants there in 2008. The local name for the plant was 'howka' or 'hook-a' so the plant and the hill names remain connected. The Rare and Scarce Plants of South Northumberland (2016): http://www.botanicalkeys.co.uk/northumbria/RPR%20vc%2067%206.2.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20190701165543/http://www.botanicalkeys.co.uk/northumbria/RPR%20vc%2067%206.2.pdf Northumberland by Angus Lunn (2004)

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