Milecastle 48  - Poltross Burn

Milecastle 48,  is one of the best preserved milecastles on Hadrian’s Wall. Poltross includes an oven, a stair to the rampart walk, and the remains of its north gateway.

It was known by locals for a long time, and still is by many locals as the  Kings Stables, but since tourism has developed it has been more known by the title Poltross Burn Milecastle. The renaming would appear to have happened so that archaeologists could avoid any link to the legends of King Arthur.

The milecastle is 18.5m by 21.3m and has a roadway through it in the longest dimension, with two barrack blocks, one each side of the roadway. It was built with broad gage defensive walls, including stub walls that suggests it was an early development, before the decision was made to make the wall narrower. It then joins narrow walls.

The stair base and first few steps survive in the south east corner, and someone projected from this that the walk height on the wall would be 3.6 metres and total wall height, including parapet, 4.6metres. The English Heritage board on the site says that it was built by the sixth legion, manned by auxiliary troops and occupied until the 4th century. It was excavated in 1909.

The railway that runs very close to it is the Tyne Valley Line, from Newcastle to Carlisle.

Aerial photo by Simon Ledingham used with permission. Previously on www.visitcumbria.com

The wall at Gilsland Photo by Mike Quinn,
notice the narrow wall built on broad foundations.

The reverse view of this is below, and appears to go to the railway line and the milecastle is just the other side, but at the higher level, so at least a part of the hillside ahead was there before the railway.

Photo by Mike Quinn

Photo above  by Iain Russell

Stairway remains photo by Mike Quinn

Remains on an oven photo by Mike Quinn  

Location: Milecastle 48  - Poltross Burn (Kings Stable), Gilsland, Cumbria Grid Reference: NY634661 Ceremonial County: Cumberland Map Link:  OS   Multimap Aerial photo: Multimap   Google  Getting there: On the edge of Gilsland, see map. Access: Due to the railway line the modern path along the wall has to take a slight detour at this point to allow the railway to be crossed, so see the map for details. This milecastle is on the east of the railway line. Website: Other Useful Websites: VC  Wiki   Geograph Email: Address: Postcode: Telephone: Opening Times: open all the time Charges: FREE Nearby Locations: Birdoswald Roman Fort     Milecastle 49  Harrow's Scar Willowford Bridge     other points on  Hadrian's Wall - Featured Places Other Location Pages: Hadrian's Wall Route Guide Other Relevant Pages: Roman Frontiers     Hadrian's Wall   Hadrian's wall - featured places Notes:

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By: Keith Park	Section: Roman	Key:
Page Ref: milecastle_48	Topic: Roman Britain	Last Updated: 05/2010

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