The Maiden Way or Maidenway (

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

: ''Maydengathe''; ) was a roughly

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

in northern

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

connecting the Roman fort of Bravoniacum ( Kirkby Thore) near Penrith with that of Magnis (

Carvoran Magnis or Magna was a Roman Empire, Roman castra, fort near Hadrian's Wall in northern Roman Britain, Britain. Its ruins are now known as and are located near Carvoran, Northumberland, in northern England. It was built on the Stanegate fronti ...

) on

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall (, also known as the ''Roman Wall'', Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Aelium'' in Latin) is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Ru ...

, via the intermediate fort of Epiacum (also known as Whitley Castle) roughly half-way between the two. William Bainbridge wrote an early paper on the road, in Archaeologia Aeliana; ''Account of the Roman Road, called the Maiden Way'' (1851). In 2016, it was reported that investigations using

LIDAR Lidar (, also LIDAR, an acronym of "light detection and ranging" or "laser imaging, detection, and ranging") is a method for determining ranging, ranges by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected li ...

technology by the

Environment agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...

for the purposes of flood mapping and other environmental management were providing extensive data showing the existence of underground archaeological features including Roman roads. This included a continuation of the Maiden Way southwards from Kirkby Thore to the Roman fort at Low Borrowbridge near Tebay. Bravoniacum was a waypoint on the northern leg of the Roman road connecting

Luguvalium Luguvalium (or ''Luguvalium Carvetiorum'') was an ancient Roman Empire, Roman city in northern Roman Britain, Britain located within present-day Carlisle, Cumbria, Carlisle, Cumbria, and may have been the capital of the 4th-century Roman provinc ...

(

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

) with

Eboracum Eboracum () was a castra, fort and later a coloniae, city in the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia. In its prime it was the largest town in northern Britain and a provincial capital. The site remained occupied after the decline of the ...

(

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

) and points south. Magnis was one of the waypoints on the

Stanegate The Stanegate (meaning "stone road" in Northumbrian dialect) was an important Roman road and early frontier built in what is now northern England. It linked many forts including two that guarded important river crossings: Corstopitum (Corbr ...

beside

. As such, the Maiden Way served as a shortcut for supplying the central and eastern areas of the Wall. It also provided supplies to the

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

and

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

mines near Epiacum (Whitley Castle). The Maiden Way was sometimes considered also to have run east along the

to Banna (Birdoswald), then north to Bewcastle Roman Fort, and thence to

Liddesdale Liddesdale is a district in the Roxburghshire, County of Roxburgh, southern Scotland. It includes the area of the valley of the Liddel Water that extends in a south-westerly direction from the vicinity of Peel Fell to the River Esk, Dumfries and ...

, but the zig-zag identity of this course as a single road is problematic. Following the end of Roman rule in Britain, the Maiden Way was used as a

drovers' road A drovers' road, drove road, droveway, or simply a drove, is a route for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to marketplace, market or between summer and winter pasture (see transhumance). Many drovers' roads were anci ...

. The route was probably named after the Maiden Castle fortlet guarding the Stainmore Pass to the east of the fort of Verterae ( Brough). The

Pennine Way The Pennine Way is a National Trail in England, with a small section in Scotland. The trail stretches for from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Park and ends at Kir ...

footpath follows the line of the Maiden Way for several miles on a roughly north-south route across Lambley Common in Northumberland, above the west bank of the river South Tyne. Immediately north of this stretch, a modern minor road follows the line of the Maiden Way for several miles to the west of Featherstone Castle.

References

External links

* * . * . * {{Coord, 54, 37, 30.03, N, 2, 33, 39.12, W, scale:6250_region:GB, display=title Roman roads in England Roads in Cumbria Roman sites in Cumbria Droving roads

See also

References

External links