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BROCOLITIA
Hadrian's Wall Fort and Settlement
Carrawburgh, Northumberland
For more information on Brocolitia visit http://www.roman-britain.org/places/brocolitia.htm
CILVRNVM (Chesters,
Northumberland) 3.5 miles east
VERCOVICIVM (Housesteads, Northumberland) via
Coesike 5 miles west
Brocolitia - 'Badger Holes'
The fort at Carrawburgh is in open moorland just over one mile west of Mile Castle and the northernmost point of the Wall. The site was partially excavated by John Clayton in the late nineteenth century, who uncovered a military bath-house outside the west gate of the fort in 1873, and three years later the south-west interval tower of the fort itself. Clayton also discovered Coventina's Well, a shrine to a Celtic water goddess, during the course of his nearby 1876 excavations. A temple of the god Mithras was found here in 1949, which discovery was followed a decade later by the uncovering of yet another shrine, this one dedicated to the local water nymphs.
The Roman name for the Carrawburgh fort was Brocolitia, which was probably based on the original Celtic name for the area
Four building inscriptions have been unearthed which record the work of individual legionary centuries on the fabric of the fort, and have been termed 'centurial stones'.
Carrawburgh was the first infantry fort on the Wall's central section, and housed a succession of auxiliary units which have been identified from epigraphic evidence; the original Hadrianic garrison was Cohors I Aquitanorum, followed by Cohors I Cugernorum towards the end of the second century, and finally, Cohors I Batavorum who occupied the fort during the third and fourth centuries and are mentioned in the Notitia Dignitatum.