Milecastle 59 was one of the small fortlets built at approximately one-Roman-mile intervals along Hadrian's Wall, constructed in the AD 122–130s under Hadrian and occupied, with interruptions, into the later 4th century. It lies on the gently rolling ground west of Carlisle, between Milecastle 58 (Newtown) and Milecastle 60 (High Strand), in a stretch of the Wall where the structure was built in turf and later rebuilt in stone.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Like its neighbours, it housed a small garrison detached from the nearest auxiliary fort (here, Stanwix or Castlesteads), controlling local movement across the frontier and policing the road and Vallum corridor; it would have served as a gated crossing-point rather than a defensive strongpoint. It is not individually distinguished in the historical or epigraphic record.
Very little survives above ground; the site has been identified largely from cropmarks, the line of the Wall, and limited investigation in the 19th and 20th centuries, and no significant modern excavation has been published. No inscriptions or distinctive finds are recorded from Milecastle 59 itself, and its internal plan (whether long-axis or short-axis, and the form of its gates) is not securely established.
Milecastle 59 was one of the small fortlets built at approximately one-Roman-mile intervals along Hadrian's Wall, constructed in the AD 122–130s under Hadrian and occupied, with interruptions, into the later 4th century. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fortlet site from the Roman period in Britain.
Milecastle 59 (Old 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 59A (0.5 km), Turret 58B (0.5 km), Turret 58A (1 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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