Milecastle 29 was a small fortlet on Hadrian's Wall, situated between Turrets 28b and 29a in the central sector of the Wall east of the North Tyne crossing at Chesters. Like other milecastles, it was constructed in the 120s AD under Hadrian and would have remained in use, with interruptions, into the late 4th century, garrisoning perhaps 8–32 auxiliary soldiers who controlled a gated passage through the curtain wall. Its modern name derives from a later farmstead (Tower Tye) built on or near the site.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As one of the regularly spaced milecastles roughly a Roman mile apart, it functioned as a controlled crossing point for traffic, customs, and surveillance along the frontier, rather than as an independent strongpoint. It is not especially distinguished among the milecastles and has produced no inscriptions firmly identifying its building legion or garrison.
Very little survives above ground: the site lies on cultivated land near the modern road (Military Road, B6318), which overlies the Wall here, and the milecastle has been largely levelled. It has not been extensively excavated; its position is known principally from surface traces, geophysics, and the regular spacing of the Wall's milecastle system, and details of its plan (long-axis vs. short-axis, gate type) remain uncertain in published record.
Milecastle 29 was a small fortlet on Hadrian's Wall, situated between Turrets 28b and 29a in the central sector of the Wall east of the North Tyne crossing at Chesters. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fortlet site from the Roman period in Britain.
Milecastle 29 (Tower Tye) 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 29A (Black Carts) (0.5 km), Walwick Fell Roman temporary camp (0.5 km), Turret 28B (0.5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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