Turret 36A is one of the regularly spaced watch towers along Hadrian's Wall, situated in the central sector east of Housesteads (Vercovicium) in Northumberland, between Milecastles 36 and 37. Like other turrets on the Wall, it was constructed in the 120s AD under Hadrian and would have functioned as a two-storey stone observation post manned by a small detachment from the nearest fort garrison, providing surveillance over the rugged Whin Sill ridge terrain.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As part of the integrated Wall system, the turret contributed to signalling and observation along a particularly dramatic stretch of the frontier where the Wall follows the crags of the Whin Sill. Turrets in this sector were largely abandoned and demolished in the later 2nd century, a pattern of selective decommissioning seen across the central crags where the natural escarpment reduced the need for densely spaced posts.
Very little is published specifically on Turret 36A, and unlike the well-investigated turrets nearer Housesteads (e.g. 36B/Hotbank area) its remains are not prominent; it has not been the subject of major modern excavation. Its existence and approximate position are inferred from the standard Wall spacing system rather than from substantial upstanding remains.
Turret 36A is one of the regularly spaced watch towers along Hadrian's Wall, situated in the central sector east of Housesteads (Vercovicium) in Northumberland, between Milecastles 36 and 37. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 36A 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 Milecastle 36 (King's Hill) (0.4 km), Turret 36B (Housesteads) (0.5 km), *Vercovicium (0.5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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