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Dating back to some 2,500 years ago, these iron age forts consist of stone ramparts which encircle the crest of a rounded hill within which stone or wood dwellings would have been constructed. Good examples which are accessible for visitors include Yeavering Bell, near Wooler; Brough Law in the Breamish Valley, near Ingram; Ros Castle, near Chillingham; and Lordenshaw Fort near Rothbury.

Northumberland is one of the richest areas of Britain for its archaeological treasures. In addition to the pre-historic monuments described here, other major sites include Hadrian's Wall, the County's many castles and fortified buildings, country houses and the remains of its Christian and Industrial Heritage.

There are several excellent sites in the County which present archaeological reconstructions:

At Dunstan Hill, not far from Embleton on the Northumberland coast, an "iron age" dwelling has been rebuilt, close to some remaining ramparts. The dwelling is made from wood, heather, cow dung, mud, stones, straw and binder twine. Brigantium on the A68 at Rochester is an archeological centre with reconstructions of a Romano-British farm and round house; a Mesolithic hunting camp and rock shelter; Roman defences and a Roman road; and a bronze age burial and stone circle.

Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (castrum) located at Chesterholm, just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, near the modern border with Scotland; it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth. It is noted for the Vindolanda tablets, among the most important finds of military and private correspondence (written on wooden tablets) found anywhere in the Roman Empire. The first post-Roman record of the ruins at Vindolanda was made by William Camden, in 1586. Occasional travellers reached the site over the next two hundred years, and the accounts they left are useful because they predate much of the stone-robbing that has damaged the site. The military bath-house was still partly roofed when Christopher Hunter visited the site in 1702. In about 1715 an excise officer named John Warburton found an altar there, which he removed. In 1814 the first real archaeological work was begun, by the Rev. Anthony Hedley. Hedley died in 1835, before writing up his discoveries. Little more was done for a long time, although in 1914 a workman found another altar at the site, set up by the civilians living at the fort in honour of the Divine House and Vulcan. Several names for the site are used in the early records, including Chesters on Caudley, Little Chesters, the Bower, and Chesterholm; the altar found in 1914 confirmed that the true Roman name for the site was "Vindolanda", which had been in dispute as one early source referred to it as "Vindolana".

The garrison were auxiliary infantry or cavalry units, not components of Roman legions. From the early third century AD onwards, this was the Fourth Cohort of Gauls. It had been presumed that this title was by this time purely nominal, with auxiliary troops being recruited locally, but an inscription found in a recent season of excavations suggests that native Gauls were still to be found in the regiment and that they liked to distinguish themselves from British soldiers.

The fort was originally constructed in turf and timber before Hadrian's Wall was built around 122 AD, and was repaired and rebuilt several times. Later, apparently after a period of abandonment when the garrison transferred to a fort on the Wall itself (probably Vercovicium (Housesteads) Fort), a new stone fort was built approximately on the same site. This fort, and the civilian community abutting it, called a vicus, remained in existence until the end of the Roman period in Britain in 410. Scattered finds suggest that some type of settlement, possibly including an early church, survived well into the fifth century. The vicus contains several rows of buildings, each containing several one-room chambers. Most of them are not connected to the existing drainage system. The one that is may have been a butchery where, for health reasons, an efficient drain would have been important. To the south of the fort are the remains of a large Roman bath. Along the interior side of the south wall of the stone fort, several semi-circular stone structures of indeterminate nature and design are located.