Turret 35A is one of the standard recessed turrets built into the curtain of Hadrian's Wall, situated on the dramatic crags east of Sewingshields between Milecastle 35 (Sewingshields) and Milecastle 36 (Housesteads). Like other Wall turrets, it was constructed in the 120s AD as part of the original Hadrianic scheme and served as a watch and signal tower, likely garrisoned by a small detachment from one of the auxiliary units stationed at nearby forts (probably Housesteads/Vercovicium). It was probably abandoned, like many central-sector turrets, in the later 2nd or earlier 3rd century when the system of intermediate turrets was rationalised.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Positioned on the Whin Sill escarpment, the turret commanded sweeping views northwards across the glaciated landscape towards the upland frontier, contributing to the surveillance and signalling chain along one of the most strategically prominent sectors of the Wall. Its setting on the crags exemplifies how the Hadrianic surveyors exploited natural topography to maximise observation with minimal structural elaboration.
Turret 35A is one of the standard recessed turrets built into the curtain of Hadrian's Wall, situated on the dramatic crags east of Sewingshields between Milecastle 35 (Sewingshields) and Milecastle 36 (Housesteads). It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 35A (Sewingshields Crag) 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 Turret 35B (Busy Gap) (0.4 km), Milecastle 35 (Sewingshields) (0.4 km), The vallum and early Roman road between the field boundary east of turret 34a and the field boundary west of milecastle 36 in wall miles 34, 35 and 36 (0.7 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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