Whitley Castle Roman Fort
Whitley Castle Roman Fort was placed to overlooking the South Tyne valley to control the sliver and lead mining in the area on Maiden Way going south from the Wall.
Whitley Castle Roman Fort
On a knoll, about 2 miles North West of Alston, in the heart of the Pennines is the remains of Whitley Castle Roman Fort probably names Epiacum in Roman times. The name is derived from the Manor of Whitlaw nearby. It overlooks the River South Tyne flowing north down the valley and was the highest Roman fort in England at about 1100 feet. It was just off the Maiden Way a Roman road between the Stanegate at Carvoran by Hadrian’s Wall and Kirby Thore in the Eden Valley just north of Appleby. About halfway between the two. The road ran east of the fort on lower ground, west of A689 road to Brampton.
It is possible that there was occupation prior to the fort being built, as the area showed signs of Iron Age activity, any evidence would be buried under the Roman Fort. There is also the possibility of an earlier Roman fort.
It is different in two ways from the forts on the Wall, first, it has a diamond shape compared to the standard playing card shapes of the Hadrian’s Wall forts. This was probably to match the contours of the hill. Secondly, it has the largest ramparts of any fort in England. These ramparts are also very well preserved, and the SW defences are at the bottom of the aerial picture above. Very little excavation has been undertaken( a few trenches in the late Fifties.), but the site was very thoroughly examined by English Heritage, Durham University between 2007 and 2009, using modern technology without excavation. It is arguably the best preserved fort in Britain. It had an area of 3.1acres.
History
Whitley Castle fort layout.
Whitley Castle Roman Fort was placed here to control the sliver and lead mining in the area; you can see from the drawing that there was an extramural settlement.
The fort was changed in 3 phases:
- In the early 2nd century possibly on an existing Iron Age settlement.
- 200AD as part of Emperor Severus’ improvements, it was knocked down and rebuilt within the existing dimensions
- 300AD has the fort significantly changed again without changing size, with a bathhouse close to the fort’s wall.
Each change resulted in additional outside ditches being added.
In spite of strange shape did not change the usual fort interior .what happened before the last phase is unknown without excavation. Although the Front Gate was on the NE wall, the road to the Maiden Way is from SE gate
EH-Whitley-Castle-Fort as it may have looked
This is English Heritage’s best guess of what it may have looked like from the SW.in the final period except the gate was blocked
Defences
Unlike most Roman Forts, this GARRISON assumed it was going to be attached, and defended by the troops inside the fort. There are 2 ditches which completely surround the fort, with a further 1almost surrounding it. Some of the latter defences were left incomplete. There is no real explanation. The idea that it was heavily fortified because of large stocks of lead and silver has been dismissed as unlikely.
The south west wall has 7 ditches with the North West wall also with additional defences. The South West Wall has the least natural defences and in the later phases of occupation, the gate was blocked, as were many of gates on the Wall.
The ditches start only 7 ft. from the wall, against say20 ft. conventionally. The additional ditches were added in the later phases of the fort
The stone wall was 5.5ft wide with corner tower and an interval towers along each of the long walls (NW and SE walls), which were about 450 ft. long.
Garrison
There is no information in regard to the garrison until 213AD, where an inscription identifies the 2nd Cohort of Nervians, who were from Belgium originally. This was a cohort of about 500 men. They were as a whole granted full Roman citizenship for bravery, probably before they came to this fort. It may have had a cavalry component, but the fort would have been small for a cohort of this type. The 2nd Nervians are thought to have been an infantry cohort, but it would be strange not to have at least some cavalry at this location.
Bath House
This is located outside the north end of the North West wall, marked in black on the fort diagram above. It measured about 100ft by 50ft and was partially built over the defensive ditches. It was built in a late phase of occupation. The building was explored by the Rev Hodgson in 1810AD when the hypocaust was still visible under slabs and concrete Twenty years later they had disappeared, lost to the early 19th century building boom. The water supply has not been identified, but was probably from aqueduct diverted water from a nearby stream.
Vicus
North of the fort close to where the farm buildings are today two altars were found, one was to Hercules dedicated by a centurion of the 6th legion and the other was to Apollo/Mithras dedicated by someone of the Cohort Of Nervians, identifying their presence at the fort. The altar was probably from a Mithraeum, which is likely to be particularly underground. Obviously, with no excavations, nothing can be confirmed. This shown below:
APPLO-ALTAR RIB1198
Possible buildings had been found to the north of the fort, most convincingly near the Bath House, and extend beyond the North West and South West Walls, but this can only be confirmed by excavation.
Location
Whitley Castle: Location within the region
The fort was located in what still is a remote region, with plenty of space for those, who wanted to keep out of the way of the Romans. The Maiden Way links the Wall forts to the North West forts south of Carlisle. It crosses the Pennines close to Cross Fell the highest point in the Pennines. The ramparts indicated that the fort expected attack.
Details of English Heritage Report can be seen HERE
Whitley Castle looking NW
For more pictures of this remarkable site go to the GALLERY
The official siite can be found here. EPIACVM