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Skinburness (milefortlet 9), part of the Roman frontier defences along the Cumbrian coast, and earlier Roman camp

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1015414
Date first listed:: 30-May-1961

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1015414
Date first listed:: 30-May-1961
Date of most recent amendment:: 21-Feb-1997

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Cumberland (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Silloth-on-Solway
National Grid Reference:: NY 12919 56139

Reasons for Designation

Hadrian's Wall marks one of the frontiers of the Roman Empire. The international importance of the surviving remains has been recognised through designation as a World Heritage Site. The military importance of the Tyne-Solway route across the Pennines was recognised by the Romans in the second half of the first century AD when a military road, the Stanegate, was constructed along with a series of forts. There is evidence that the Tyne-Solway route was being recognised as a frontier by the start of the second century AD, but the line was consolidated in the early second century AD by the construction of a substantial frontier work, Hadrian's Wall, in c.120 AD. Subsequent attempts to establish the boundary further north, between Clyde and Forth, failed by c.160 AD. Hadrian's Wall then remained the frontier of the Roman Empire in Britain until c.400 AD when Roman armies withdrew from Britain. For most of its course, the 70 miles of Hadrian's Wall running from coast to coast comprised a continuous stone wall (which in places was first temporarily built of turf) with permanent structures sited at intervals of one Roman mile (milecastles) and at third of a mile intervals (turrets) between the milecastles. At a later date, the Wall was strengthened by 16 full-size garrison forts built either on, or close to, the Wall. To the north of the Wall, for most of its length, lay a substantial defensive ditch and to the south a complex of banks and ditches provided east-west communication and demarcated the frontier zone from the province. To the west of Bowness-on-Solway, where the Wall reached the sea, however, the frontier had a different character and served a slightly different purpose. At the western end of the Wall a system of milefortlets and towers, spaced similarly to the milecastles and turrets along the Wall, extended the frontier system for at least 27 miles down the Cumbrian coast and helped control movement across the estuary of the Solway Firth. In places these milefortlets and towers were supplemented by lengths of palisade fences. Throughout its long history the Wall was not always well maintained. It was often neglected and sometimes overrun, but it remained in use until the late fourth century when a weak and divided Roman Empire finally withdrew its armies from the Wall and Britain. The frontier works along the Cumbrian coast survive as earthworks or buried archaeological remains, the latter sometimes visible on aerial photographs. They survive in this form largely as a result of the more ephemeral materials of which they were built (timber and turf instead of the stone of Hadrian's Wall land frontier) rather than because of poor survival of archaeological remains. Components of the coastal frontier which have surviving archaeological remains, whether visible or not, will generally be considered of national importance.

Roman camps are rectangular or sub-rectangular enclosures constructed and used by Roman soldiers either when out on campaign or as practice camps. They were bounded by a single earthen rampart and outer ditch, in plan are straight-sided with rounded corners, and normally have between one and four entrances. Roman camps predominate in hostile upland and frontier areas and provide an important insight into Roman military strategy and organisation. Aerial photography has shown that buried remains of Skinburness milefortlet and an earlier Roman camp survive reasonably well. The monument will retain undisturbed archaeological deposits and will contribute to any further study of the Roman frontier defences along the Cumbrian coast.

Details

The monument includes the buried remains of Skinburness Roman milefortlet together with the buried remains of an earlier Roman camp which partly underlies the milefortlet. Within the sequence of milefortlets along the Cumbrian coast this one has been identified as number 9. It was originally of turf and timber construction and is located on the crest of the gravel ridge which runs along the centre of a narrow spit called Grune Point. The monument was discovered during the late 1940s when aerial photographs clearly revealed the crop marks of the milefortlet's rampart and ditch and, to the south west of the milefortlet, the crop mark of much of the defensive ditch flanking the south west and north west sides of a Roman camp. In 1954 several fragments of Roman pottery were picked up from the surface of the field on the site of the monument. All fences posts are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath these features is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 27745
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Welfare, H, Swan, V, Roman Camps in England, (1994)
Bellhouse, R, 'CWAAS Research Series' in Roman Sites On The Cumb Coast: A New Schedule Of Coastal Sites, , Vol. III, (1989), 36
Bellhouse, R L, 'Trans Cumb and West Antiq and Arch Soc. New Ser.' in Roman Sites On The Cumberland Coast, 1954, , Vol. LIV, (1954), 36
Other
AP No. DM 070, St Joseph, Skinburness milefortlet 9, (1949)
AP No. MUCS 57,7, Skinburness milefortlet 9,
DOE (IAM) Record Form, Skinburness milefortlet 9, (1977)
SMR No. 9608, Cumbria SMR, Silloth, SW of Grune House, (1989)
St Joseph, (1949)

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.