The bath house associated with Castlesteads (Roman Camboglanna) lay outside the fort to the north-east, serving the garrison of this Hadrian's Wall auxiliary fort situated between Birdoswald and Stanwix. The fort and its bath house were active from the early 2nd century through to the late 4th century, with Castlesteads being unusual among Wall forts in being set back some 700m south of the Wall itself rather than astride it. Bath houses of this type typically followed the standard row or block plan, with apodyterium, frigidarium, tepidarium, and caldarium serving both hygienic and social functions for the unit stationed there (attested garrisons include Cohors IV Gallorum and Cohors II Tungrorum).
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The bath house was a standard but essential military amenity, providing the principal venue for off-duty bathing, socialising and recreation for the auxiliary garrison guarding this sector of the Wall above the Cambeck valley. Castlesteads' own significance lies in its role plugging the gap between the major forts at Birdoswald and Stanwix, monitoring approaches via the Irthing and King Water.
The fort site was largely destroyed in the late 18th century when the grounds of Castlesteads House were landscaped, and antiquarian observations (notably by Hutton and later recorded by MacLauchlan and Bruce) provide most of what is known; altars, inscriptions and tile from the bath compl
The bath house associated with Castlesteads (Roman Camboglanna) lay outside the fort to the north-east, serving the garrison of this Hadrian's Wall auxiliary fort situated between Birdoswald and Stanwix. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fort site from the Roman period in Britain.
The Roman bath house to the north east of Castlesteads Roman fort in wall mile 56 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 *Camboglanna (0.2 km), Turret 56B (Cambeck) (0.3 km), Milecastle 57 (Cambeckhill) (0.5 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 The Roman bath house to the north east of Castlesteads Roman fort in wall mile 56