#Alongthewallin80days - Day 1

Let the count down begin! Everyday for the next 80 days Pocket Tours will bring you interesting facts and information on Hadrian's Wall, its history and what it has to offer! Day 1 is all about Milecastle 79 and the wall before it all began...

Pre Hadrian's Wall

In the Summer of AD 100, the new Roman emperor, Trajan, ordered a complete withdrawal of Roman forces from what is now Scotland in order to gather more troops for his campaign against Dacia (now Moldova).  A new frontier, known as 'Stanegate Line'  was established from East to West between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Carlisle on the Solway and was complete with roads, forts and signal-stations. Archeology suggestes that many sites along the 'Stanegate Line' is pre-Hadrianic, however the road itself and several of the sites either on the road or associated with the ‘Stanegate’ in the wider sense, continued to have an important function

Milecastle 79 Fact File

Solway House

Grid reference NY23596224.

Currently no visible surface trace

Furthest West Milecastle on Hadrian's Wall

Excavations revealed it was 57 1/2 ft square internally, with stone walls 8-9 ft thick

Situated 350 metres west of Field View Lane, to the west of the village of Port Carlisle