milecastle
A milecastle was a small fort (fortlet), a rectangular fortification built during the period of the Roman Empire. They were placed at intervals of approximately one Roman mile along several major frontiers, for example Hadrian's Wall in Great Br ...
of the
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 Roman civilization
*Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
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 ...
. No remains are currently visible, having been built over, but its probable location is at or near the junction of the A187 Fossway and Tunstall Avenue, in the parish of Wallsend.
Construction
Milecastle 2 was a short-axis milecastle of unknown gateway type. Short-axis milecastles were thought to have been constructed by the
legio II Augusta
Legio II Augusta ( Second Legion "Augustus'") was a legion of the Imperial Roman army that was founded during the late Roman Republic. Its emblems were the Capricornus, Pegasus, and Mars. It may have taken the name "''Augusta''" from a victory ...
who were based in
Isca Augusta
Isca, variously specified as Isca Augusta or Isca Silurum, was the site of a Roman legionary fortress and settlement or ''vicus'', the remains of which lie beneath parts of the present-day suburban town of Caerleon in the north of the city of ...
(
Caerleon
Caerleon ( ; ) is a town and Community (Wales), community in Newport, Wales. Situated on the River Usk, it lies northeast of Newport city centre, and southeast of Cwmbran. Caerleon is of archaeological importance, being the site of a notable ...
).
Northing: 6482, Easting: 2705
Excavations and investigations
*1732 - Horsley surveyed the milecastle, noting visible remains and recording its position
*1848 - Collingwood Bruce studied the wall and found the site to have been covered by a brick
kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or Chemical Changes, chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects m ...
.
*1852-4 - Henry MacLauchlan surveyed the milecastle's position, reporting it as short-axis, and recorded.
*1928 - FG Simpson attempted to locate the site, but despite the previous removal of the brick kiln, found only Roman occupation earth and debris. He recorded distances from the presumed location to the centre of
Milecastle 1
Milecastle 1 (Stott's Pow) was a milecastle of the Roman Hadrian's Wall. It was located near the (now disappeared) valley of Stott's Pow. Its remains are covered over, and are located beneath the recreation ground at Miller's Dene.
Early excav ...
Each milecastle on Hadrian's Wall had two associated
turret
Turret may refer to:
* Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building
* Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon
* Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...
structures. These turrets were positioned approximately one-third and two-thirds of a
Roman mile
The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of length; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English ...
to the west of the Milecastle, and would probably have been manned by part of the milecastle's garrison. The turrets associated with Milecastle 2 are known as Turret 2A and Turret 2B.
Turret 2A
No remains have been identified of Turret 2A. Two locations have been suggested, one by
Eric Birley
Eric Barff Birley Milecastle 3,and an alternative by Grace Simpson in 1978, based on Maclauchlin's locations of Milecastle 2 and Milecastle 3.
Location: (both locations lie within the same 100m
grid
Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to:
Space partitioning
* Regular grid, a tessellation of space with translational symmetry, typically formed from parallelograms or higher-dimensional analogs
** Grid graph, a graph structure with nodes connec ...
square).
Turret 2B
No remains have been identified of Turret 2B. Two locations have been suggested, one by
Eric Birley
Eric Barff Birley Milecastle 3,and an alternative by Grace Simpson in 1978, based on Maclauchlin's locations of Milecastle 2 and Milecastle 3.
Location:
Alternative location: