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Pocket Tours, iPhone guides and tours

#alongthewallin80days - Day 29

Samantha's picture
Wed, 11/06/2014 - 19:14 -- Samantha

Keeping in theme, todays blog is back to the Milecastles and next on our countdown are milcastles 56, 57 & 58. 

The location of both of these milecastles is still not known and both have had their locations estimated in relation to the locations of other Roman remains close by. 

Milecastle 56 is thought to lie northeast of an inn at Walton, Cumbria (grid reference NY522643) . The general course of Hadrian's Wall passes under the village of Walton, and Milecastle 56 is wholly obliterated.Slight marks of the milecastle were said to be detectable in 1858,but a survey conducted in 1900 found no trace

Milecastle 57 is thought to lay underneath a Farm at Cambeckhil (grid reference NY50816368). An exploratory trench was dug in the 1960's by the Ministry of Public Building. During these excavations, remains of Hadrian's Wall were uncovered consisting of sandstone blocks and rubble. To the south west of the farm the course of Hadrian's Wall is indicated by broad swelling and  occasional rises in hedgelines which cross its course. The site of the Roman fort at Castlesteads is also situated 430 metres southeast of the approximate location of Milecastle 57.

It is though that milecastle 58 is located near a lane heading southwest out of the village of Newtown in Cumbria.  On the north side of a hedge that lines the lane, unusual amounts of stone lay in the hedge bottom where it is thought that milcastle is locacted. A stone inscribed with the words "LEG II AUG FECIT" (The Second Augustan Legion built this) was apparently found among the stones at Milecastle 58. Excavations in 1902 located the course of Hadrian's Wall to the southwest of Newtown, and the geophysical survey in 1981 indicated that masonry still survives on the line of the Wall to the immediate southwest of Newtown. The grid reference for the approximate location of milecastle 58 is NY49786258, it can also be viewed along with all 80 milecastle in our Hadrian's Wall app available to download here.

 

 

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