Coastal Tower 16b was a Roman watchtower on the Cumbrian coast south of Maryport, part of the system of milefortlets and towers extending Hadrian's frontier defences down the Solway shore beyond the western terminus of the Wall at Bowness. Like its neighbours, it would have been a small square stone or timber-and-turf structure manned by a small detachment, probably active from the Hadrianic period (c. AD 122–130s) through periods of intermittent use into the later 2nd century, with possible reoccupation in the later Roman period.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The tower formed one link in a regularly spaced surveillance chain (two towers between each pair of milefortlets) monitoring the Solway Firth approaches, which were vulnerable to crossings from southwest Scotland and could otherwise outflank the Wall. Its role was primarily observational and signalling, feeding into the coastal command likely centred on the fort at Maryport (Alauna).
Very little is recorded specifically for Tower 16b at Old Mawbray; like several towers in this stretch, much of its remains have been lost to coastal erosion and ploughing, and it is known mainly from aerial photography, fieldwalking, and the predictive spacing of the system rather than from substantive excavation. Comparable excavated towers further north (e.g. on the Silloth–Bowness sector) have
Coastal Tower 16b was a Roman watchtower on the Cumbrian coast south of Maryport, part of the system of milefortlets and towers extending Hadrian's frontier defences down the Solway shore beyond the western terminus of the Wall at Bowness. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Coastal Tower 16b (Old Mawbray) is classified as a Roman watch tower — a military 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 Dubmill Point milefortlet 17, 560m WNW of Hill House, part of the Roman frontier defences along the Cumbrian coast (0.5 km), Bank Mill tower 15a, 250m north west of Belmont House, part of the Roman frontier defences along the Cumbrian coast (1.9 km), Romano-British farmstead 250m ENE of Belmont House (2.1 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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