The site immediately south of Greenlee Lough, in the Northumberland uplands just north of Hadrian's Wall, comprises a remarkable palimpsest of monuments spanning prehistory to the post-medieval period, including a Roman temporary camp. The camp itself is one of a series of marching or practice camps scattered across the Wall's hinterland, most likely associated with troop movements or training exercises by the garrison of the Wall, broadly datable to the 2nd–3rd centuries AD.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its significance lies less in any single function than in its juxtaposition with a Romano-British farmstead, field system, defended settlement and prehistoric stone circle — illustrating continuous landscape use and the close proximity of native rural settlement to Roman military activity in the Wall zone. Greenlee Lough also lies within the territorium of Vindolanda and Housesteads, and the camp likely reflects the operational reach of those garrisons.
The complex is known largely from aerial photography and earthwork survey rather than excavation, with the camp visible as a low rectilinear enclosure; the adjacent Romano-British farmstead shows characteristic stone-founded round houses and enclosed yards within a coaxial field system. No substantial published excavation of the camp itself is recorded, and dating rests on morphology and analogy with better-studied camps in the central Wall sector.
The site immediately south of Greenlee Lough, in the Northumberland uplands just north of Hadrian's Wall, comprises a remarkable palimpsest of monuments spanning prehistory to the post-medieval period, including a Roman temporary camp. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a military camp site from the Roman period in Britain.
Stone circle, defended settlement, Romano-British farmstead and field system, Roman camp and group of shielings immediately south of Greenlee Lough 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 Turret 37A (Rapishaw Gap) (1.1 km), Turret 37B (Hotbank Crag) (1.1 km), Milecastle 37 (Housesteads) (1.3 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 Stone circle, defended settlement, Romano-British farmstead and field system, Roman camp and group of shielings immediately south of Greenlee Lough