Coggabata, or Congavata / Concavata, (with the modern name of
Drumburgh
Drumburgh ( ) is a small settlement in Cumbria, England. It is northwest of the city of Carlisle and is on the course of Hadrian's Wall, near to Burgh by Sands. The village is sited on a gentle hill with a good view in all directions over the ...
) was a
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
fort
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
on
Hadrian's Wall, between
Aballava
Aballava or Aballaba (with the modern name of Burgh by Sands) was a Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall, between Petriana (Stanwix) to the east and Coggabata (Drumburgh) to the west. It is about one and a half miles south of the Solway Firth, and its p ...
(
Burgh by Sands
Burgh by Sands () is a village and civil parish in the City of Carlisle district of Cumbria, England, situated near the Solway Firth. The parish includes the village of Burgh by Sands along with Longburgh, Dykesfield, Boustead Hill, Moorhous ...
) to the east and
Mais (
Bowness-on-Solway) to the west. It was built on a hill commanding views over the flatter land to the east and west and to the shore of the
Solway Firth
The Solway Firth ( gd, Tràchd Romhra) is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven ...
to the north. Its purpose was to guard the southern end of two important Solway fords, the Stonewath and the Sandwath.
The ''
Notitia Dignitatum'' gives the name of the fort as 'Congavata', but the
Rudge Cup
The Rudge Cup is a small enamelled bronze cup found in 1725 at Rudge, near Froxfield, in Wiltshire, England. The cup was found down a well on the site of a Roman villa. It is important in that it lists five of the forts on the western section of ...
gives the name as 'Coggabata'.
Description
The fort was an oblong and built of stone, with the Wall running along its northern side, and measured north to south by east to west, occupying an area of just less than . The Wall at this point is nine feet seven inches wide, and is made of stone. It was constructed on the foundations of the levelled
Turf Wall. There were gates on each side, with the north gate giving access beyond the wall.
A Roman road has been proved by
LIDAR photography to have linked Coggabata with the nearby Roman fort at
Kirkbride to the south-west.
[Roman roads in Cumbria, www.romanroads.org]
There is a
pele tower
Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, mainly between the mid-14th century and about 1600. They were free-standing ...
,
Drumburgh Castle (shown above right), lying across the line of the north wall of the fort, built entirely of Roman stones.
Garrison
The ''
Notitia Dignitatum'' gives the garrison as the Second Cohort of
Lingones
The Lingones (Gaulish: 'the jumpers') were a Gallic tribe of the Iron Age and Roman periods. They dwelled in the region surrounding the present-day city of Langres, between the provinces of Gallia Lugdunensis and Gallia Belgica.
Name
Attes ...
but only a detachment could be accommodated in such a small fort.
Excavations
The site was excavated in 1899, when the stone fort was revealed. A buttressed granary was found within the north-west angle of the fort.
Excavations in 1947 revealed that the stone fort had been built within a slightly larger fort whose clay ramparts had been levelled. It is presumed that the earthwork fort had been added to the initial Turf Wall version of Hadrian's Wall in Cumbria, and that the stone fort replaced it when the Turf Wall was re-built in stone. This would date the stone fort to about 160 AD.
No sign of a
vicus
In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus ...
has yet been detected near to the fort.
References
* J. Collingwood Bruce, Roman Wall (1863), Harold Hill & Son,
* Frank Graham, The Roman Wall, Comprehensive History and Guide (1979), Frank Graham,
External links
''Concavata'' at www.Roman-Britain.co.ukiRomans
website showing Coggabata objects in the Tullie House Museum collection in Carlisle
{{coord, 54.927, N, 3.148, W, source:placeopedia, display=title
Forts of Hadrian's Wall
Roman fortifications in England
Roman sites in Cumbria