Crooks Roman temporary camp

The Crooks Roman temporary camp survives as an upstanding earthwork with partly silted ditches. The rarity of temporary camps, and in particular examples with upstanding remains identifies them nationally important.

The monument includes the Roman temporary camp known as Crooks, which lies 450m south of the Hadrian's Wall vallum. It survives as a series of earthworks visible on the ground. The camp lies along a low ridge that extends NNE from Wardoughan, on the north edge of Thirlwall Common. Although there is an open outlook to the south and east, visibility from the site is otherwise severely restricted. The principal surviving earthwork is the ditch of the camp, which is narrow and sharply defined and up to 0.7m deep. This is partly due to its incorporation into the system of mole drains which stretch across the site. The ditch encloses an area of 0.9ha. The internal rampart is best preserved close to the north west angle where it stands to a height of 0.2m, though as elsewhere it has been spread to an average width of 6m into the interior. There are four gateways, one in the centre of each side, and each defended by an external bank, up to 1.6m high on the east, west and south sides, and an accompanying ditch, up to 0.4m deep.