BURGH THREE FORTS
Burgh on Sands Roman Fort is 5.25 miles from Stanwix (Carlisle) in the east and under 4 miles from Drumburgh in the west. They were built starting with the Stanegate Fort built about 100 AD, with the Early Hadrianic possibly about 120 AD, with the turf and wood Wall soon afterwards. The stone wall and fort were built about 160 AD. These are shown above. Even the Wall Fort has hardly been explored. Burgh is only about a mile southeast of the Solway marches and it covers two crossings of the Solway, and the wall goes through the northern part of the village.
Wall Fort (Aballava)
Burgh on Sand Roman Fort under village
Aballava means ‘apple’ but is thought to mean ‘The Orchard’. The fort is located on the highest ground east of the village. There are no visible remains. The fort was under 5 acres, measuring 520ft by 410ft north-south. The fort appears originally to straddle the turf Wall and when the stone wall was built, it formed the north wall. The facts are far from clear. The garrison, possibly, was a mixed cohort of about 500 strong from Belgium. There was possibly a civil settlement south and east of the fort and indications of the military road. The bathhouse was south of the fort and destroyed when a canal was built, which was subsequently replaced by a railway, now no longer there.
ST-MICHAEL’S-CHURCH-BURGH
Built over the fort on its east side, in the 12th century, is St Michael’s Church. In 1307AD King Edward died just north of the village, preparing to cross the Solway to continue his war on Scotland. He was laid in state inside the church.
Early Hadrianic Fort
This you can see from the top picture was about half a mile southwest of the Wall Fort found by aerial photography in 1975, and was of a similar size to the Wall fort, but in one phase had a large annexe. It may have a construction depot in one phase, it is difficult to understand why it was built so far south probably just a few years before the turf and wood wall was built.
It lies on the site of a watchtower which is even earlier.
Stanegate Fort
Earliest of all is Trojan Fort built circa 100 AD., possibly on an extension of Stanegate, again thought to be about 5 acres, further west as shown above. At one stage it was extended to about 8 acres. Again it was found by aerial photography in 1977.
It is difficult make of the purpose of it all without dating evidence.
See the artefacts