Turret 27B (Brokenheugh) is one of the regularly spaced stone watchtowers built into the curtain of Hadrian's Wall, positioned between Milecastle 27 (Low Brunton) and Milecastle 28 (Walwick), in the sector west of the North Tyne crossing at Chesters. Like other Wall turrets, it was constructed in the 120s AD under Hadrian and was likely manned by detachments from the auxiliary garrison at nearby Cilurnum (Chesters), forming part of the integrated surveillance system until the later 2nd or early 3rd century when many turrets in this central sector were decommissioned.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its role was observational and signalling — providing line-of-sight communication along the Wall and overlooking the approaches to the Wall from the north — rather than housing a substantial garrison. It is unremarkable individually but forms part of the densest fortified frontier in the empire.
Turret 27B has seen only limited investigation; its position has been identified along the Wall line but, unlike the well-published turrets at Black Carts (29A) and Brunton (26B) nearby, it has not yielded a significant published assemblage of finds or detailed structural record. What is recoverable conforms to the standard recessed turret plan (roughly 4.3 m square internally, bonded into a broad-gauge Wall foundation) typical of this central sector.
Turret 27B (Brokenheugh) is one of the regularly spaced stone watchtowers built into the curtain of Hadrian's Wall, positioned between Milecastle 27 (Low Brunton) and Milecastle 28 (Walwick), in the sector west of the North Tyne crossing at Chesters. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 27B is classified as a Roman watch tower — 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 The Roman fort, vicus, bridge abutments and associated remains of Hadrian's Wall at Chesters in wall mile 27 (0.4 km), Cilurnum (0.4 km), Turret 27A (0.5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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