Milecastle 68 was a small fortlet on Hadrian's Wall, situated between Milecastle 67 (Stanwix) — actually west of Carlisle — in the western sector of the Wall near Boomby Gill, west of Burgh-by-Sands. Like other milecastles, it was constructed in the 120s AD under Hadrian and remained in intermittent use, with the western turf-and-timber stretch later rebuilt in stone, probably until the late 4th century. It would have housed a small garrison detachment (likely 8–32 men) controlling a gateway through the Wall.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As part of the western Wall sector beyond the Eden, Milecastle 68 helped monitor movement across the Solway coastal plain, an area vulnerable to crossings at low tide from the Scottish side. Its position contributed to the policed frontier system extending the Wall's surveillance regime into the marshy lowland approaches to Carlisle.
Very little is known of this milecastle from excavation; its precise location has been inferred from spacing along the Wall rather than from substantial standing or excavated remains, and the site has suffered from agricultural activity and the loss of the turf wall sector. No significant finds assemblage is published for this specific milecastle, and it remains among the more poorly characterised installations on the western Wall.
Milecastle 68 was a small fortlet on Hadrian's Wall, situated between Milecastle 67 (Stanwix) — actually west of Carlisle — in the western sector of the Wall near Boomby Gill, west of Burgh-by-Sands. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fortlet site from the Roman period in Britain.
Milecastle 68 (Boomby Gill) 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 Boomby Lane 1 and 2 Roman temporary camps (0.3 km), Nowtler Hill 1 Roman temporary camp (0.8 km), Milecastle 69 (Sourmilk Bridge) (1.1 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Milecastle 68 (Boomby Gill)