The bathhouse at Cilurnum (Chesters) served the auxiliary cavalry fort of ala II Asturum on Hadrian's Wall, situated on the east bank of the North Tyne just outside the fort's south-east corner. Built in the early-to-mid 2nd century shortly after the fort's establishment c. AD 124, it remained in use through successive phases until the late 4th century, and is one of the best-preserved military bathhouses in Britain despite the site description labelling it civilian.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As the bath suite for a 500-strong cavalry regiment, it was a key element of garrison life and a focus for hygiene, leisure, and informal sociability; its riverside setting also reflects the practical need for abundant water supply. The standing remains, including a near-complete changing room with seven arched niches, are among the most architecturally legible Roman bath structures north of the Alps.
Excavated by John Clayton in the 1880s, the building reveals the full sequence of rooms — apodyterium, frigidarium with cold plunge, tepidarium, caldarium and laconicum — with surviving hypocaust pilae, flue arches, and window jambs standing to considerable height. Finds included altars, sculpted stones, and a hoard of coins, while the niches in the changing room remain debated as either clothing recesses or shrines for protective deities.
The bathhouse at Cilurnum (Chesters) served the auxiliary cavalry fort of ala II Asturum on Hadrian's Wall, situated on the east bank of the North Tyne just outside the fort's south-east corner. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a bath house site from the Roman period in Britain.
Baths of Cilurnum is classified as a Roman bath house — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Turret 27A (0.1 km), Unnamed Roman bridgehead (0.1 km), Cilurnum (0.2 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
Aubrey Research generates detailed historical reports for any location in Britain, incorporating Roman heritage, Domesday Book records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and much more. Enter a nearby address to begin.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any address in Britain — drawing on Roman heritage, Domesday records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and medieval history to reveal the complete story of a landscape.
Research the area around Baths of Cilurnum