Turret 50A was a stone watchtower on the Turf Wall sector of Hadrian's Wall, positioned between Milecastles 50 and 51 west of the River Irthing in Cumbria. Although the curtain wall here was initially built in turf c. AD 122, the turrets along the Turf Wall were constructed in stone from the outset, forming small square towers (roughly 4–5 m internally) integrated into the rampart. It would have been active from the early 120s until the Turf Wall was rebuilt in stone, likely in the Hadrianic-Antonine period in this sector.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As one of the regularly spaced turrets at approximately one-third mile intervals, it formed part of the surveillance and signalling system linking milecastles along the western Wall, with no special distinction beyond its role in this continuous frontier observation network. Its position on the Turf Wall makes it part of the well-studied evidence for the original Hadrianic frontier scheme before reconstruction in stone.
Turret 50A (also designated 50aTW, sometimes called High House Turret) was identified and investigated during F.G. Simpson's early 20th-century campaigns on the Turf Wall sector, which clarified the relationship between the stone turrets and the surrounding turf rampart. Beyond confirmation of its plan and the standard turret footprint, little material of note has been published from the site, and the structure is not visible above ground today.
Turret 50A was a stone watchtower on the Turf Wall sector of Hadrian's Wall, positioned between Milecastles 50 and 51 west of the River Irthing in Cumbria. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 50A (Turf Wall) 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 50A (High House) (0.2 km), Milecastle 50 (Turf Wall) (High House) (0.5 km), Milecastle 50 (High House) (0.5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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