Milecastle 55, known as Low Wall, was a small fortlet on Hadrian's Wall located west of Banks, Cumbria, between Turret 55a and Turret 54b, in the sector where the Wall had originally been built in turf (the Turf Wall) before being rebuilt in stone. Constructed in the AD 120s as part of Hadrian's frontier scheme and occupied with interruptions into the later 4th century, it would have housed a small garrison detachment (probably 8–32 men) drawn from auxiliary units at nearby forts, controlling a gated crossing point through the Wall.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As one of the milecastles in the western Turf Wall sector, it played a role in monitoring movement and small-scale traffic across the frontier in a stretch of comparatively low-lying terrain. It is not particularly distinguished among Wall installations and is chiefly notable as part of the sequence demonstrating the conversion of the Turf Wall to stone.
The site has seen only limited investigation; its position is known but little above-ground survives, and its plan and internal arrangements are inferred largely from the typology of better-excavated milecastles in this stretch (such as MC 50 High House and MC 54 Randylands) rather than from substantial excavation at Low Wall itself. No significant finds assemblage from the site is widely published.
Milecastle 55, known as Low Wall, was a small fortlet on Hadrian's Wall located west of Banks, Cumbria, between Turret 55a and Turret 54b, in the sector where the Wall had originally been built in turf (the Turf Wall) before being rebuilt in stone. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fortlet site from the Roman period in Britain.
Milecastle 55 (Low Wall) 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 54B (Howgill) (0.5 km), Turret 55A (Dovecote) (0.5 km), Turret 55B (Townhead Croft) (0.9 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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