It is situated to the north-west of Alnwick, near Eglingham.

[1] In 1870–1872, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Beanley as "a township in Eglingham parish, Northumberland; on the river Breamish, 7 miles NW of Alnwick.

The earls of Dunbar anciently held it on the tenure of maintaining a road into Scotland.

A cross stands on Hedgeley-moor, at a short distance from the village, erected to the memory of Sir Ralph Percy, who fell in 1464 in a battle with the Yorkists."

Beanley was formerly a township in Eglingham parish,[2] from 1866 Beanley was a civil parish in its own right until it was abolished on 1 April 1955 and merged with Hedgeley.