Milecastle 47, known as Chapel House, is a milecastle on Hadrian's Wall situated between Great Chesters (Aesica) and Cawfields, in the central sector west of the Whin Sill crags. Like other milecastles, it was built in the 120s AD under Hadrian and remained in use, with periods of repair and reduced occupation, into the late 4th century. It would have been a small fortlet housing a detachment of perhaps 8–32 auxiliaries, controlling a gateway through the Wall.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its primary role was to police movement through the frontier and provide a garrisoned strongpoint between the larger forts; positioned in the relatively level ground west of the dramatic crag sector, it likely saw more genuine traffic through its north gate than milecastles set on cliff-edges. It is one of the less-discussed milecastles, lacking the visible upstanding remains of neighbours such as MC42 (Cawfields).
Milecastle 47, known as Chapel House, is a milecastle on Hadrian's Wall situated between Great Chesters (Aesica) and Cawfields, in the central sector west of the Whin Sill crags. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fortlet site from the Roman period in Britain.
Milecastle 47 (Chapel House) 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 47A (Foultown) (0.5 km), Turret 46B (Wallend) (0.5 km), Chapel Rigg Roman temporary camp (0.7 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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