Romans on the Solway (published in 2004)
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For more than twenty miles down the coast of the Solway in north-west Cumbria, the northern frontier of the Roman empire, constructed under the orders of the emperor Hadrian in the second century AD, consisted of a turf and timber fortlet every mile with two stone towers between each fortlet – a military installation every 300 metres. This replicated the system on Hadrian’s Turf Wall, with intervening forts but without the continuous barrier.
This book, written in honour of Richard Bellhouse, examines the Solway frontier in detail, and includes a new, complete schedule of the military installations.
Also published here for the first time are:
• The results of the extensive geophysical survey at Maryport, which has revolutionised our knowledge of its civilian settlement.
• The discoveries made at the cemetery of the Roman fort at Beckfoot, one of few military Roman burial grounds to have been investigated in northern Britain.
• A topographical survey of the Roman fort at Ravenglass.
Coastal change, Roman place-names and numismatic evidence are among other topics treated, and there is a fascinating final chapter on the rise and fall of Joseph Robinson, Victorian pioneer of Roman research on the Solway.