Milecastle 10 (Walbottle Dene) was a milecastle of the Roman Hadrian's Wall. It is located near to the modern village of Throckley in Tyne and Wear, northern England. Much of the milecastle lies beneath a road but partial remains of the north wall can be seen in the garden of Dene House. It has been excavated several times and its walls located, though the remains have been "considerably damaged by ploughing". Only one of the two associated turrets has been located and excavated.
Milecastle 10 was a long-axis milecastle with Type IV gateways. Such milecastles were thought to have been constructed by the legio XX Valeria Victrix who were based in Deva Victrix (Chester). The usually straight Hadrian's Wall changes direction in this area, making a 20 degree turn just before it crosses a Dene (valley) and heading towards the Great Hill at Heddon-on-the-Wall.
The milecastle measures 78 feet 2 inches (23.83 m) long north to south and 67 feet (20 m) east to west with walls approximately 10 feet (3.0 m) wide. The north gateway survives in the front garden of Dene House and consists of twelve foundation slabs with three stone blocks lying on top. One of the blocks is marked with an asterisk, two of them contain pivot holes for a gate and one shows signs of a lewis-hole. The southern part of the milecastle is visible only as a 0.4m high mound in a field and part of the ditch is also visible.
1864 – The north and south gateways were excavated, the centre of the milecastle lying beneath a road. The north gateway was found to stand two courses high and contained an entrance 11 feet (3.4 m) wide. A centurial stone was discovered that was inscribed with "c[entvria] Car...", this stone is now in the collection of the Black Gate Museum.
1928 – The milecastle was excavated by the North of England Excavation Committee. They uncovered part of the south west gateway which lay in a field to the south of the road. The excavation discovered that little remained of the east wall and found no evidence of any internal structures.
1966 – An English Heritage field investigation found that only the northern gateway remained visible on the surface.
1979 – Another English Heritage field investigation was carried out and recorded the foundations of part of the north wall. The foundations were 6.4m long with three blocks of the first stone course still lying on top of them.
1988 – The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England surveyed and measured the milecastle.
1999 – The milecastle was excavated by P Duffy of Central Archaeological Services as part of an interim evaluation carried out by English Heritage's Centre for Archaeology. Two trenches were put in to assess the state of the milecastle. The east and west walls were uncovered as well as some flagstone surfacing on the west side and an oven in the south-east corner. The remains were found to have been "considerably damaged by ploughing".
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Milecastle 10 (Walbottle Dene) was a milecastle of the Roman Hadrian's Wall. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fortlet site from the Roman period in Britain.
Milecastle 10 (Walbottle Dene) is classified as a Roman fortlet — 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 Turret 10A (Throckley East) (0.5 km), Turret 9B (Walbottle) (0.5 km), Turret 10B (Throckley) (1 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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