Milecastle 36 (King's Hill) is a Hadrian's Wall milecastle situated on the high ground between Housesteads (Vercovicium) and the Knag Burn, in the central crags sector of the Wall. Built in the early 130s AD as part of Hadrian's frontier scheme and occupied with varying intensity into the later 4th century, it was a short-axis milecastle of relatively modest dimensions, designed to house a small detachment (probably 8–32 men) drawn from the garrison of a nearby fort, most likely Housesteads.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As one of the milecastles in the most heavily militarised central sector of the Wall, MC36 controlled a gate through the frontier and provided surveillance over the dip between Housesteads Crags and Kennel Crags, contributing to the regulated movement of people, goods and livestock across the line.
The milecastle was identified and described by antiquarian observers including the Hadrian's Wall surveys of MacLauchlan and later Collingwood Bruce, with its short-axis plan and gateways recorded, but it has not been the subject of major modern excavation, and finds specific to the site are sparse in the published record. Its earthworks remain visible as a low platform attached to the south face of the curtain, consistent with Broad Wall foundations narrowed to Narrow Wall gauge — a pattern characteristic of this stretch.
Milecastle 36 (King's Hill) is a Hadrian's Wall milecastle situated on the high ground between Housesteads (Vercovicium) and the Knag Burn, in the central crags sector of the Wall. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fortlet site from the Roman period in Britain.
Milecastle 36 (King's Hill) 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 36A (0.4 km), Turret 35B (Busy Gap) (0.5 km), The vallum and early Roman road between the field boundary east of turret 34a and the field boundary west of milecastle 36 in wall miles 34, 35 and 36 (0.8 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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