Roman Sites in United Kingdom
Spa and Hot Springs of Bath
The spa and hot springs of Bath are traditionally associated with the Romans. It is true that the Romans developed the baths and built a massive complex, with temples and administrative buildings, around them. However the site dates back to the Celtic period, and the baths have been in used almost continuously since the Romans left. The spa was revitalised in the 18th century and appears on the novels of Jane Austen. Tod ...
Founded: Celtic |
Location:
Bath, United Kingdom
Caerleon Roman Amphitheatre
Built around AD 90 to entertain the legionaries stationed at the fort of Caerleon (Isca), the impressive amphitheatre was the Roman equivalent of today’s multiplex cinema. Wooden benches provided seating for up to 6,000 spectators, who would gather to watch bloodthirsty displays featuring gladiatorial combat and exotic wild animals. Long after the Romans left, the amphitheatre took on a new life in Arthurian legend. Ge ...
Founded: 90 AD |
Location:
Newport, United Kingdom
Caerleon Roman Fortress and Baths
The Caerleon Roman Fortress and Baths museum is a historical site located in the town of Caerleon. Roman Wales was the farthest point west that the Roman Empire in Roman Britain extended to, and as a defence point, the fortress at Caerleon built in AD 75 was one of only three permanent Roman Legionary fortresses in Roman Britain. It was occupied and operational for just over 200 years. The site of the baths was ...
Founded: 75 AD |
Location:
Newport, United Kingdom
Brading Roman Villa
Brading Roman Villa was a Roman courtyard villa which has been excavated and put on public display in Brading on the Isle of Wight. In 1879, a farmer called Mr Munns struck a buried mosaic floor while making holes on his land for a sheep pen. Captain Thorp of Yarbridge, who was in the area looking for Roman antiquities, helped Mr Munns uncover the Gallus panel the next day. By spring 1880, all of the site on Mr Mun ...
Founded: 1st century AD |
Location:
Brading, United Kingdom
Dolaucothi Gold Mines
The Dolaucothi Gold Mines are ancient Roman surface and underground mines located in the valley of the River Cothi, near Pumsaint. The gold mines are located within the Dolaucothi Estate which is now owned by the National Trust. They are the only mines for Welsh gold outside those of the Dolgellau gold-belt, and are a Scheduled Ancient Monument. They are also the only known Roman gold mines in Britain, although it ...
Founded: c. 74 AD |
Location:
Pumsaint, United Kingdom
Alderney's Roman Fort
There are traces of Roman occupation including a fort, built in the late 300s AD, above the Alderneys only natural harbour. The Alderney Nunnery was probably located on the site of this one best preserved Roman forts in the British Isles. The 26-foot tall Roman tower features 10-feet-thick walls. Built of stone and Roman concrete, many of the outer walls are still standing however only fragments remain of the tall tow ...
Founded: 4th century AD |
Location:
Alderney, United Kingdom
Bar Hill Fort
Bar Hill Roman Fort lies near the top of Bar Hill, in a strategic location looking north over the Kelvin Valley to the Campsie Fells. It was built as one of the forts housing troops manning the Antonine Wall, which was for a while the north-west frontier of a Roman Empire. Along with Rough Castle near Falkirk, it is one of the two best locations along the Antonine Wall to gain a real impression of what the wall was like, ...
Founded: 142-144 AD |
Location:
Twechar, United Kingdom
Newport Roman Villa
Newport Roman Villa was a Romano-British farmhouse constructed in 280 AD. It is located near to Newport, Isle of Wight. Newport Roman Villa was constructed with local stone including flint, chalk, limestone and greensand with the walls remaining almost at their original height. The building was roofed with massive slabs of Bembridge limestone which needed large roof timbers to support them. Many of these roof slabs ...
Founded: 280 AD |
Location:
Newport, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom
Brecon Gaer Roman Fort
Looking at its tranquil location in farmland near Brecon today, you’d never guess that Gaer was once one of the Romans’ largest inland forts and a vital link in the occupiers’ defensive network in Wales. Founded around AD 75, it was situated in a strategic position at the meeting point of two major roads and manned by highly trained legionaries of the Vettonian Spanish Cavalry Regiment. In Roman times this was a bu ...
Founded: 75 AD |
Location:
Powys, United Kingdom
Rough Castle Fort
Rough Castle Fort is a Roman fort on the Antonine Wall. The wall was built around 143 AD and stretched from Bo"ness on the River Forth to Old Kilpatrick on the River Clyde. The fort is the best preserved of the 19 forts constructed along the length of the Wall. Built against the southern rear face of the Wall, the fort was defended by 6 metre thick turf ramparts and surrounded by defensive ditches. Gateways were prov ...
Founded: 142 AD |
Location:
Falkirk, United Kingdom
Moridunum
Moridunum was a Roman fort and town in the Roman province of Britannia, today in Carmarthen. The initial fort is believed to date from about AD 75, possibly replacing the hillfort on Merlin"s Hill. The fort lasted until about 120, when the associated civilian vicus took over and the place became a town. A street-grid was laid out in the town and a public bath house built, and possibly a mansio. The forum and ...
Founded: 75 AD |
Location:
Carmarthen, United Kingdom
Bearsden Roman Baths
Bearsden's Roman Baths can be found a couple of hundred yards east, or downhill, along Roman Road from Bearsden Cross, the centre of the town. A gate in a low stone wall on your left gives access to a remarkable example of the survival of ancient archeological remains despite later development. It was part of the Antonine Wall built between AD 142 to 144. One of wall forts was sited in what is today called Bearsden. Antiq ...
Founded: 142-144 AD |
Location:
Bearsden, United Kingdom
Watling Lodge
Watling Lodge is perhaps the best-preserved section of Roman Antonine Wall ditch. It can be viewed to both the east and west of Watling Lodge along Tamfourhill Road in Falkirk. Here the ditch has survived to almost its original dimensions, giving the best view of how it may have looked in Roman times. Near this portion of ditch, in the garden of Watling Lodge was an Antonine Wall fortlet, but no visible traces survive. A ...
Founded: 142 AD |
Location:
Falkirk, United Kingdom
Ardoch Roman Fort
Ardoch Roman Fort is an archaeological site just outside the village of Braco. At Ardoch are the remains of a Roman fort and several marching camps which included a signal tower. Part of the Roman Gask Ridge, it is said to be one of the most complete Roman camps in Britain, and is one of the best-preserved series of Roman military earthworks in the whole Empire. The remains consist of grass-covered earthworks, and are co ...
Founded: 1st century AD |
Location:
Braco, United Kingdom
Croy Hill
On a high plateau on the east side of Croy Hill, North Lanarkshire, is the site of a Roman fort and probable temporary camp on the Antonine Wall. The fort, fortlet, and temporary camp are not visible on the ground today, but the Antonine Wall ditch is easily identifiable across much of Croy Hill. You can see where the Romans had to cut through solid rock to create the ditch. Two small raised platforms known as ‘expa ...
Founded: 100-200 AD |
Location:
North Lanarkshire, United Kingdom
Seabegs Wood
Seabegs Wood is a woodland offering impressive views of the Antonine Wall ditch and rampart, and is also important as the site of a Roman fortlet. It is also the best place to see the visible remains of the military way, the Roman road that connected all of the forts along the Antonine Wall. The military way is located about 30m south of the Antonine Wall rampart, and can be traced as a 7m-wide cambered mound with a visib ...
Founded: 142 AD |
Location:
Bonnybridge, United Kingdom
Castlecary Roman Fort
Castlecary is like many other settlements in the area tied to the Roman history of Scotland. The route of the Antonine Wall passes close to the village. A Roman camp existed at Castlecary, first constructed around the year 80 AD, possibly during the fourth campaign season of governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola. Excavated in 1902, the Roman fort was probably devastated by the 2nd century. Castlecary is one of only two forts a ...
Founded: 80 AD |
Location:
Castlecary, United Kingdom
Westerwood Roman Fort
At the west end of Cumbernauld Airport runway is the site of a Roman fort on the former Westerwood farm. Very little is visible on the ground today, but portions of the fort’s southern defensive ditches may be traced as subtle hollows within the field. The fort at Westerwood is the fourth smallest known along the Antonine Wall, with an internal area of about 0.8ha, situated on a steep decline toward the north. The ...
Founded: 142 AD |
Location:
North Lanarkshire, United Kingdom
Bremia
Bremia was the Roman fort in Llanio in the Llanddewi Brefi community area. The fort was built by the Romans around AD 75 and was in use to AD 120 in Roman Wales. The fort was situated on Sarn Helen, a Roman road leading north from the fort at Dolaucothi. Five inscribed stones have been found within the fort and surrounding military settlement. Two of these have inscriptions which show the garrison to include to a cohort f ...
Founded: 75 AD |
Location:
Llanddewi Brefi, United Kingdom
Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings
Photo from Flickr, copyright Mr Phil Price
Historic Site of the week
Caerleon Roman Amphitheatre
Built around AD 90 to entertain the legionaries stationed at the fort of Caerleon (Isca), the impressive amphitheatre was the Roman equivalent of today’s multiplex cinema. Wooden benches provided seating for up to 6,000 spectators, who would gather to watch bloodthirsty displays featuring gladiatorial combat and exotic wild animals.
Long after the Romans left, the amphitheatre took on a new life in Arthurian legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the somewhat imaginative 12th-century scholar, wrote in his History of the Kings of Britain that Arthur was crowned in Caerleon and that the ruined amphitheatre was actually the remains of King Arthur’s Round Table.
Today it is the most complete Roman amphitheatre in Britain.