Turret 45B was one of the regularly-spaced stone watch towers built into the curtain of Hadrian's Wall, sited on the western end of the Walltown Crags ridge in Northumberland, roughly midway between Milecastle 45 (Walltown) and Milecastle 46 (Carvoran). Constructed in the 120s AD as part of the original Hadrianic scheme, it would have stood as a two-storey tower projecting slightly from the Wall, garrisoned by a small detachment drawn from the nearby fort at Carvoran (Magnis) or Great Chesters (Aesica), and was likely in use, with interruptions, into the later 4th century.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Positioned on the dramatic Whin Sill escarpment, the turret commanded extensive views north over the approaches to the Wall and southward across the Tipalt valley, forming part of the integrated observation and signalling system that linked turrets, milecastles, and forts along this central sector. Its location on Walltown Crags placed it in one of the most strategically commanding stretches of the entire frontier.
Compared to its better-known neighbour Turret 45A (Walltown East), which has been excavated and consolidated and is visible to visitors, Turret 45B is poorly recorded and its remains are not prominently exposed; its position has been identified by measurement along the Wall line rather than by substantial structural survival. No significant
Turret 45B was one of the regularly-spaced stone watch towers built into the curtain of Hadrian's Wall, sited on the western end of the Walltown Crags ridge in Northumberland, roughly midway between Milecastle 45 (Walltown) and Milecastle 46 (Carvoran). It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 45B (Walltown West) 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 46 (Carvoran) (0.5 km), Turret 45A (Walltown) (0.5 km), Magnis (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 Turret 45B (Walltown West)