Milecastle 57 was a small fortlet on Hadrian's Wall, situated between Turret 56b and Turret 57a in the sector west of Birdoswald (Banna), in what is now Cumbria. Like other milecastles on the Wall, it was built in the 120s AD under Hadrian and would have remained in intermittent use until the late 4th century, garrisoned by a small detachment (perhaps 20–30 auxiliaries) controlling movement through a gateway in the curtain.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its primary role was that of a controlled crossing point and observation post on the western, turf-built sector of the Wall (later rebuilt in stone), monitoring the approaches across the Cambeck valley. It is otherwise an unremarkable milecastle, significant chiefly as part of the regular spacing system that defines the Wall.
The site has not been extensively excavated and its remains are largely ploughed out, with the position established primarily through the predictable Wall-mile spacing and limited surface/geophysical observation rather than upstanding masonry. No significant finds assemblage is published for this milecastle specifically, and details of its plan (long-axis vs. short-axis, gateway type) remain uncertain.
Milecastle 57 was a small fortlet on Hadrian's Wall, situated between Turret 56b and Turret 57a in the sector west of Birdoswald (Banna), in what is now Cumbria. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fortlet site from the Roman period in Britain.
Milecastle 57 (Cambeckhill) 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 *Camboglanna (0.4 km), Turret 56B (Cambeck) (0.5 km), Turret 57A (Beck) (0.5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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