Turret 53B (Craggle Hill) is one of the pair of turrets between Milecastle 53 (Banks Burn) and Milecastle 54 (Randylands), situated on the western sector of Hadrian's Wall in the gently undulating country east of Banks, Cumbria. Like other turrets on the Wall, it was built in the 120s AD under Hadrian and would have functioned as a two-storey observation and signalling post manned by a small detachment, probably from the garrison of the nearest fort (most likely Birdoswald). It appears to have been held into the later 2nd century before being abandoned, as was common for turrets in this sector, by the early 3rd century when many were demolished and their recesses walled up.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Its principal role was surveillance and signalling along a stretch of Wall where the ground offers reasonable westward views, contributing to the integrated chain of milecastles and turrets that controlled movement across the frontier rather than defending it as a battle-line. It is not individually distinguished in the ancient sources or modern scholarship, being a routine component of the Wall's regular spacing system.
The turret was identified and recorded in the early 20th-century surveys of the Wall (notably the work of F. G. Simpson and the Cumberland Excavation Committee), which traced foundations in this sector, but no major modern excavation has been published for it specifically. Beyond confirmation of its position and the standard recess-and-tower plan, little det
Turret 53B (Craggle Hill) is one of the pair of turrets between Milecastle 53 (Banks Burn) and Milecastle 54 (Randylands), situated on the western sector of Hadrian's Wall in the gently undulating country east of Banks, Cumbria. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a watch tower site from the Roman period in Britain.
Turret 53B (Craggle Hill) 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 54 (Randylands) (0.5 km), Turret 53A (Hare Hill) (0.6 km), Milecastle 53 (Banks Burn) (0.9 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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