Turret 36B was one of the regularly spaced observation towers along Hadrian's Wall, built in the early 120s AD as part of the original Wall scheme under Hadrian. It had an unusually short lifespan: when the auxiliary fort of Vercovicium (Housesteads) was constructed astride the Wall around AD 124, the turret fell within the fort's footprint and was demolished to make way for it, meaning it was active for only a few years at most.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The turret is significant precisely because of its demolition: it provides clear stratigraphic evidence that the forts on the Wall were a secondary addition to Hadrian's original plan, in which the frontier was to be garrisoned from outpost forts to the rear with milecastles and turrets providing surveillance. Together with Turret 36A, it documents the well-known "fort decision" that fundamentally altered the Wall's design.
The turret's foundations survive beneath the fort interior, and its remains were identified during excavations at Housesteads, confirming the sequence in which Wall and turret preceded the fort's curtain wall. Beyond its plan and stratigraphic relationship to the fort, little of its internal arrangements or finds assemblage is recorded, owing to its short use and the disturbance caused by the overlying fort buildings.
Turret 36B was one of the regularly spaced observation towers along Hadrian's Wall, built in the early 120s AD as part of the original Wall scheme under Hadrian. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 36B (Housesteads) 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 *Vercovicium (0.1 km), Housesteads Mithraeum (0.4 km), Milecastle 37 (Housesteads) (0.5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
Aubrey Research generates detailed historical reports for any location in Britain, incorporating Roman heritage, Domesday Book records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and much more. Enter a nearby address to begin.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any address in Britain — drawing on Roman heritage, Domesday records, scheduled monument data, archaeological finds and medieval history to reveal the complete story of a landscape.
Research the area around Turret 36B (Housesteads)