Milecastle 49 (Harrows Scar) was a

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 ...

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 ...

().

Description

Milecastle 49 is immediately west of the gorge of the

River Irthing The River Irthing is a river in Cumbria, England and a major tributary of the River Eden. The name is recorded as Ard or Arden in early references. For the first 15 miles of its course it defines the border between Northumberland and Cumbria. ...

where the Wall was carried over the river by the bridge at Willowford. The scar or cliff and hence the milecastle are named after an ancient tenement called The Harrows which stood nearby. The tenement is shown on William Howard's 1603 map of the Barony of Gilsland and on an estate map of The Shaws commissioned by John Carrick around 1800. Harrows Scar measures 19.8 metres east to west by 22.9 metres north to south and no contemporary internal buildings are now visible. It is built with

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

defensive walls which are bonded with the Narrow Wall

curtain A curtain is a piece of cloth or other material intended to block or obscure light, air drafts, or (in the case of a shower curtain) water. Curtains are often hung on the inside of a building's windows to block the passage of light. For instan ...

of Hadrian's Wall on either side. It has Type III gateways. It lies 1458m west of

Milecastle 48 Milecastle 48 (Poltross Burn) is a milecastle on Hadrian's Wall (). Its remains lie near the village of Gilsland in Cumbria where it was historically known as "The King's Stables", owing to the well-preserved interior walls. Unusually, a substa ...

and 1391m east of

Milecastle 50 Milecastle 50 (High House) was a milecastle on Hadrian's Wall (). Description Milecastle 50 is west of Birdoswald fort.

. The monument is currently in the care of

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

. It was designated as a Scheduled Monument (number:13987) on 14 July 1997.

Excavations

It was excavated in 1898, and in 1953 by I. A. Richmond,Richmond, I. A. 1956. ‘Excavations at Milecastle 49 (Harrows Scar) 1953’; ''Trans. Cumberland Westmorland Antiq Archaeol Soc N.Ser'', ''56:'' pp18–27 when parts of the underlying Turf Wall milecastle (49TW) were identified.

Associated turrets

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 49 are known as Turret 49A and Turret 49B.

Turret 49A

Turret 49A (TW) () was constructed when the turf wall was built. The turret was demolished when the Birdoswald fort was built. Traces of it were found during investigations in 1945. Turret 49A was located on or near the headquarters building. There are no visible remains of the turret.

Turret 49B

Turret 49B (Birdoswald) () lies 340 metres west of the west rampart of Birdoswald fort. It was excavated in 1911. The masonry remains have been consolidated and exposed. It replaced the earlier turf wall turret (49B TW; ) which was dismantled when the stone wall was built.

References

External links

Harrows Scar Milecastle and Wall
English Heritage {{Milecastles 49 Roman sites in Cumbria