This is a Roman temporary marching camp located on the high ground of Bathampton Down, on the eastern outskirts of Bath (Aquae Sulis), Somerset. Like other camps of its type, it was a short-term, ditched and ramparted enclosure used by Roman troops on the move, probably dating to the conquest period or early campaigns in the South West (mid- to later 1st century AD), though without dating evidence its precise chronology remains uncertain.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its position on Bathampton Down — a commanding plateau overlooking the Avon valley and Aquae Sulis — placed it within the broader military landscape of the south-western frontier and the routes leading toward the Mendips lead-silver fields and the Fosse Way. Such camps reflect the transient Roman military presence around what became one of Roman Britain's most important religious-spa settlements.
The site is known principally from cropmark and earthwork evidence rather than excavation, identified as a sub-rectangular enclosure with characteristic playing-card form consistent with a Roman temporary camp. No significant artefactual assemblage from controlled excavation is recorded, and its dimensions, internal arrangement, and date have not been securely established.
This is a Roman temporary marching camp located on the high ground of Bathampton Down, on the eastern outskirts of Bath (Aquae Sulis), Somerset. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a military camp site from the Roman period in Britain.
Roman camp 405m west of The Bungalow is classified as a Roman military camp — 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 Romano-British settlement E of Sir Bevil Granville's Monument (1.7 km), Wick (3.6 km), Newton St. Loe (4.3 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 Roman camp 405m west of The Bungalow