Alavana was a name tentatively (and probably wrongly) applied to the ruins of a Roman fort at Watercrook about south of

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Westmorland and Furness, England. It lies within the River Kent's dale, from which its name is derived, just outside the boundary of t ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, for which the Roman name Medibogdo is a perfect fit to its river-bend position. The fort at Watercrook was erected around AD 90, originally in timber but then rebuilt in stone around the year 130 during the reign of

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

. The fort was abandoned for about 20 years during the Antonine occupation of Scotland. It was refurbished under

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( ; ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors ...

and occupied until around 270, when its military units departed. Its remains are now largely buried beneath a local farm, while excavated artifacts are displayed at the Kendal Museum. Alone was probably the name of a civilian settlement at Kendal. The

Antonine Itinerary The Antonine Itinerary (, "Itinerary of the Emperor Antoninus") is an , a register of the stations and distances along various roads. Seemingly based on official documents, possibly in part from a survey carried out under Augustus, it describes t ...

placed it 18 m.p. from Galava and 19 m.p. from Calacum. It is a spelling variant of Alauna, a very common ancient name in Britain (at least a dozen instances) and on the Continent, which served primarily as a river name, and was applied secondarily to forts and settlements on those rivers. Sorting out all their locations and their spellings in ancient sources is not easy.

References

Roman sites in Cumbria Roman fortifications in England {{uk-hist-stub