Turret 47B, known as "Gap" turret, was one of the small recessed watch towers built into the fabric of Hadrian's Wall, situated between Milecastles 47 (Chapel House) and 48 (Poltross Burn) in the western sector of the Wall near Gilsland. Like other Wall turrets, it was constructed in the 120s AD under Hadrian, originally as a stone tower roughly 4-5 metres square internally, projecting slightly to the south of the Wall curtain, and it housed a small detachment providing observation and signalling. It was likely occupied intermittently into the later 2nd century, with most Wall turrets in this sector abandoned and walled up by the early 3rd century.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As part of the integrated turret-and-milecastle system, 47B contributed to surveillance and signal communication along the Tipalt-Irthing gap, a relatively low-lying and accessible stretch of the frontier. It has no particular individual distinction beyond its role within this regular pattern.
Relatively little is published specifically on Turret 47B; it has not been a focus of major modern excavation comparable to neighbouring sites such as Poltross Burn milecastle. Its position is known from the systematic Wall measurement and survey work (notably by MacLauchlan and later by the Wall pilgrimage surveys), but visible remains are slight.
Turret 47B, known as "Gap" turret, was one of the small recessed watch towers built into the fabric of Hadrian's Wall, situated between Milecastles 47 (Chapel House) and 48 (Poltross Burn) in the western sector of the Wall near Gilsland. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 47B (Gap) 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 47A (Foultown) (0.5 km), Milecastle 48 (Poltross Burn) (0.5 km), Crooks Roman temporary camp (0.7 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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