The Cheviot was formed when melting in the crust over 390 million years ago gave rise to volcanic activity, producing a stratovolcano and pluton, and it has subsequently sustained intense erosion.

The Cheviot's summit boasts views of many upland areas such as the Lake District, including Scafell Pike (England's highest mountain) over 80 miles to the south-west, the North Pennines and the North York Moors in Northern England, as well as several in Scotland including the Ettrick Hills, the Pentlands and even the southern peaks of the Grampians and the Mounth.

[14] Usway Burn, a tributary of the Coquet, rises on The Cheviot, as does College Burn, which flows across a series of cascades though a gorge known as Hen Hole on the western flank of the mountain and merges with the Bowmont Water to form the River Glen near Kirk Newton.

[15][16][6][17] The Cheviot is an extinct stratovolcano eruptive during the Caledonian orogeny (490-390 Ma), in which volcanic activity arose from melting within the mantle crust.

[21] The earliest volcanic activity in the area was violent and explosive, with exposed ash and ignimbrite showing pyroclastic flows to have reached Coquetdale and Ingram.

[22] Harthope Burn, which cuts a deep valley on the flanks of The Cheviot, marked the boundary between the reivers of the English East and Middle Marches in the 16th and 17th century.

[23] During World War II, The Cheviot and the hills surrounding it were the site of aircraft crashes which claimed the lives both of Allied and German airmen.

The longest possible line of sight from the Cheviot is to Beinn a' Ghlò, 112 miles away in the Grampians of the Scottish Highlands.