Chesters Roman Fort

About this place

Chesters Roman Fort stands on Hadrian's Wall near Humshaugh in Northumberland, built around AD 124 to house a cavalry regiment of some 500 men.

The site includes some of the best-preserved Roman military bath house remains in Britain, with walls still standing to shoulder height in places.

English Heritage manages the fort and its museum today.

Visitors can walk through the excavated headquarters building, barrack blocks, and the riverside bath house down by the North Tyne.

History

Known to the Romans as Cilurnum, the fort guarded a bridge carrying Hadrian's Wall across the North Tyne and was garrisoned by cavalry units including the Ala II Asturum. The antiquarian John Clayton inherited the Chesters estate in 1832 and began extensive excavations around 1840, assembling the collection now displayed in the on-site museum built in 1896 to house his finds.

Architecture

The visible remains include the fort's headquarters building, barrack blocks, and a separate bath house by the river, with stonework surviving to unusual height for a Roman military site in Britain. A country house stands nearby and was built partly using stone robbed from the fort.

Worth knowing

John Clayton, the Newcastle town clerk and antiquarian who inherited Chesters in 1832, went on to acquire several other forts along Hadrian's Wall, making him one of the most significant figures in the Wall's early preservation.

Facilities