Chapel Rigg Roman temporary camp

The Chapel Rigg Roman temporary camp survives very well as a series of upstanding earthworks and buried features. The rarity of temporary camps, and in particular examples with upstanding and waterlogged remains identifies them as nationally importance.

The monument includes the Roman temporary camp known as Chapel Rigg, which lies 550m to the south of the Hadrian's Wall vallum. It survives well as a series of upstanding earthworks and buried features. The camp occupies the summit of an east to west ridge and commands extensive views on all sides, especially to the north. The camp is rectangular, measuring 87m from east to west by 69m from north to south within a rampart and ditch enclosing an area of 0.6ha. The whole perimeter of the ditch is silted up and in many places it is waterlogged, making good conditions for preservation. On the north and east sides the earthworks are partially masked by silts and other material which has been washed down the adjacent hillslope, though the outward facing scarp is still up to 0.6m high.

The south and west defences are in very good condition. They survive as a bank and ditch, the former being 0.5m high internally and standing to a maximum height of 1.4m above the bottom of the ditch. Here the defences measure 9m across. Centrally placed in each of the four sides is a gateway, all of which are protected by both internal and external defence banks. The scarp along the lip of the gully to the west and south west of the camp is the remnant of an outwork bank, which seems only to have been provided along that portion of the crest. The adjacent gully could not be seen fully from the camp and hence additional defence, in the form of the outwork bank, was considered necessary here.