Milecastle 51 (Wall Bowers) was a

milecastle A milecastle was a small fort (fortlet), a rectangular fortification built during the period of the Roman Empire. They were placed at intervals of approximately one Roman mile along several major frontiers, for example Hadrian's Wall in Great Bri ...

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall ( la, Vallum Aelium), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Hadriani'' in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. R ...

().

Description

Milecastle 51 is west of

Birdoswald Birdoswald is a former farm in the civil parish of Waterhead in the English county of Cumbria (formerly in Cumberland). It stands on the site of the Roman fort of Banna. Middle Ages Birdoswald first appears in the written record in 1211 when W ...

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

(), at the point where the

Stone Wall Stone walls are a kind of masonry construction that has been used for thousands of years. The first stone walls were constructed by farmers and primitive people by piling loose field stones into a dry stone wall. Later, mortar and plaster ...

rejoins the line of the Turf Wall.F. Gerald Simpson and I. A. Richmond, "The Turf Wall of Hadrian, 1895–1935," ''Journal of Roman Studies'', 25 (1935), pp. 1–18. It lies 1501m west of Milecastle 50 and 1484m east of

Milecastle 52 Milecastle 52 (Bankshead) was a milecastle on Hadrian's Wall (). Description Milecastle 52 is west of Birdoswald fort. It lies 1484 metres west of Milecastle 51 and 1520 metres east of Milecastle 53. The site is occupied by Bankshead House and ...

. The remains are in poor condition, consisting of turf covered foundations with traces of a ditch to the east.MILECASTLE 51
Pastscape, retrieved 4 December 2013

Excavations

The milecastle was excavated in 1927, 1934 and 1936. Although not now visible, excavation showed that it had two internal stone

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

buildings. It had Type III gateways. The stone milecastle replaced its underlying predecessor, Milecastle 51TW, on the Turf Wall.

Associated turrets

Each milecastle on Hadrian's Wall had two associated

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

structures. These turrets were positioned approximately one-third and two-thirds of a

Roman mile The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 Engli ...

to the west of the Milecastle, and would probably have been manned by part of the milecastle's garrison. The turrets associated with Milecastle 51 are known as Turret 51A and Turret 51B.

Turret 51A

Turret 51A (Piper Sike) () is of the type normally associated with the Turf Wall, and later replaced in stone.PIPER SIKE TURRET
Pastscape, retrieved 4 December 2013 The turret was excavated in 1927 and again in 1970. The entrance was on the east side and a substantial platform against the north wall. Cooking hearths and rubbish were found spread over the rest of the turret. Occupation is not believed to have continued later than the 2nd century AD. The turret was consolidated after 1970 and survives to a maximum height of 0.8 metres.

Turret 51B

Turret 51B (Leahill) () measures 4.1 by 4.3 metres. It was excavated in 1927 and again in 1958.LEAHILL TURRET
Pastscape, retrieved 4 December 2013 It replaced the earlier Turf Wall turret. The stone turret has been consolidated and survives to a maximum height of 1.1 metres.

References

External links

Leahill Turret and Piper Sike Turret
English Heritage {{Milecastles 51 Roman sites in Cumbria