The Nunnery on Alderney is a small late Roman coastal fort, roughly 50m square with projecting circular corner bastions, built in the late 3rd or 4th century AD. It is one of the smallest and best-preserved late Roman fortifications in the British Isles, and is generally interpreted as part of the wider system of Channel coastal defences contemporary with the Saxon Shore forts of southern Britain and northern Gaul.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its position commanding Longis Bay, the principal anchorage on Alderney, suggests a role in monitoring and protecting cross-Channel shipping lanes between the Cotentin peninsula and southern Britain, very likely linked to the Tractus Armoricanus or the Saxon Shore command. It is the only known Roman military installation in the Channel Islands and a rare survival of a small late Roman burgus-type fort with its circuit walls still standing to substantial height.
Excavations by the Alderney Society and others, including work directed by Jason Monaghan and Philip de Jersey in the 2010s, have confirmed a late Roman construction date through coin evidence (predominantly 4th-century issues) and identified an associated extramural settlement and possible signal station on nearby Les Hommeaux Florains. Finds include late Roman pottery, coins, and military fittings, though the interior has been heavily disturbed by later medieval and post-medieval reuse, including its conversion to domestic and military
The Nunnery on Alderney is a small late Roman coastal fort, roughly 50m square with projecting circular corner bastions, built in the late 3rd or 4th century AD. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fort site from the Roman period in Britain.
The Nunnery is classified as a Roman fort — 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 Coriallum (41.4 km), Tourlaville (43.8 km), Alauna (56.6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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