There are several single pitch rock climbing crags dotted along the hillside, notably Simonside North Face and Ravensheugh.

Sigemund or Sigmund is the name of an old Germanic hero from the Volsunga Saga and the Nibelungenlied who is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf.

WW Tomlinson, in his Comprehensive Guide To Northumberland (1916), stated that "Simon of mythology was, it seems, a domestic brewer to King Arthur, identical with the German Sigmund, and very fond of killing dragons".

[1] This points to the possibility that the Simon of Simonside Hill is the Sigemund mentioned in Beowulf and subsequently Norse and Teutonic myths.

An alternative derivation for the name is a corruption of "seaman's sight", allegedly because the hills are visible from the North Sea.