Burrow Walls is a Roman fort on the Cumbrian coast just north of the mouth of the River Derwent, near modern Workington, forming part of the coastal defensive system extending southward from Hadrian's Wall. Tentatively identified with the "Magis" of the Ravenna Cosmography, the site appears to have been occupied in the 2nd century and again in the 4th century, the latter phase represented by surviving masonry remains.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The fort was one of a chain of installations (with Maryport, Beckfoot, and the milefortlets and towers of the Cumbrian coast) extending the Hadrianic frontier system down the Solway shore to monitor seaborne movement from south-west Scotland and Ireland. Its presumed late-Roman reoccupation makes it significant for understanding the persistence of coastal defence into the 4th century.
Visible remains include a stretch of the east wall, standing to several courses of rubble core with facing largely robbed, indicating a stone fort of modest size; limited investigation (notably Bellhouse's mid-20th-century work) recorded late-Roman pottery and confirmed two main phases. The interior has not been extensively excavated, and the identification with Magis remains philological rather than epigraphically secured — no inscription naming the garrison or unit has been recovered.
Burrow Walls is a Roman fort on the Cumbrian coast just north of the mouth of the River Derwent, near modern Workington, forming part of the coastal defensive system extending southward from Hadrian's Wall. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fort site from the Roman period in Britain.
Magis? is classified as a Roman fort — 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 Rise How tower 25a, part of the Roman frontier defences along the Cumbrian coast including remains of prehistoric burial mound and early medieval kiln (5.5 km), Romano-British settlement and trackway at Ewanrigg (6 km), Roman cremation cemetery, 380m south east of Maryport Roman fort (8 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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