Howick, Northumberland.

Amateur archaeologists John Davies and Jim Hutchinson discovered Mesolithic flint artefacts from an eroding cliff-edge at Howick, Northumberland. This prompted a detailed investigation of the site by archaeologists from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne during the summers of 2000 and 2002.
The remains of a Mesolithic hut were discovered revealing evidence of three distinct structural phases.

Twenty-one radiocarbon dates taken from successive hearth features indicate that the hut was constructed c. 7,800 BC .

The Howick structure is the earliest dated evidence for human settlement in Northumberland, and moreover, is one of only a few Stone Age dwellings known from the British Isles.
Over 18,000 pieces of flint were recovered during the excavations, as well as charred animal bone, charred hazelnut shells, red ochre and limpet shell fragments. Howick represents one of the most detailed Mesolithic excavations hitherto undertaken anywhere in Europe.
recons4_optframeworkreconstruction

In addition to the Mesolithic site a completely unexpected Bronze Age cist cemetery was exposed in the excavation trench. This consisted of five cists, though only one contained surviving fragments of bone. Some small sherds of food vessel were associated with another of the cists but this had been disturbed by a later linear burning pit. However, a curious association was the placing of limestone axe roughouts directly on top of, or next to, the capstones of a number of the cists. This is particularly interesting as the limestone outcrops on the beach immediately below the site.
Four of the five cists were for infants and the surviving bone fragments from Cist 2 included pieces of a small skull. Cist 5 was adult-sized although no bone survived in the acid soil. The reason bone fragments survived in Cist 2 was due to the cist slabs being made from whinstone which has an alkaline bias, unlike the acidic sandstone used for the other cists.
cist4
Another Bronze Age cist cemetery was discovered on the opposite promontory to the south of the Howick Burn by antiquarians during the nineteenth century. One of these cists had rock art on the underside of the capstone and a fragmentary pottery vessel was also found.