Milecastle 15 (Whitchester) was a small fortlet on Hadrian's Wall, one of the regularly spaced milecastles built c. AD 122–130 under Hadrian to control movement across the frontier and house a small garrison, probably of 8–32 auxiliary soldiers. It lay in the central-eastern sector of the Wall west of Newcastle, between Milecastle 14 (March Burn) and Milecastle 16 (Harlow Hill), and would have remained in use, with periods of refurbishment, into the late 4th century alongside the wider Wall system.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As with all milecastles, its role was to police a gated crossing through the Wall, regulating traffic, trade, and probably taxation, while linking the major garrison forts via the turret-and-milecastle observation network. It is not individually notable, being one of the more obscure milecastles whose remains have largely been lost beneath later agriculture and the line of the Military Road (B6318).
The site has not been excavated in any substantive modern campaign, and no visible upstanding remains survive; its position is inferred largely from the regular Hadrianic spacing along the Wall and from antiquarian observation. Consequently, details of its plan (long-axis vs short-axis, gate type) and garrison are unknown for this specific milecastle.
Milecastle 15 (Whitchester) was a small fortlet on Hadrian's Wall, one of the regularly spaced milecastles built c. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fortlet site from the Roman period in Britain.
Milecastle 15 (Whitchester) 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 14B (0.5 km), Turret 15A (0.5 km), Turret 14A (Eppies Hill) (0.9 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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