Topics > Heritage Sites > Hadrian's Wall > Wall Mile 49 > Turret 49B (Birdoswald West)
Turret 49B (Birdoswald West)
Turret 49B is a relatively well-preserved stone watchtower on Hadrian's Wall, located on Wall Mile 49, west of Birdoswald Fort. It is notable for replacing an earlier turret on the section of Hadrian’s Wall built in turf, when the Wall was rebuilt in stone. The turret has a 4 meter square internal space, recessed into the Wall, with a distinctive south-facing door. The turret can be seen from the Hadrian's Wall Path, and from Hadrian's Cycleway (Cycle Route 72).
Turrets on Hadrian’s Wall were small watchtowers built into the wall, with two turrets per Roman mile, located between larger milecastles. They provided elevated viewpoints for small groups of 4 to 6 soldiers to spot threats and offer basic shelter for patrols. Turrets significantly enhanced continuous surveillance and control of the frontier by housing sentries between main garrisons. Their importance lay in forming an integrated part of the wall’s defensive system, enabling rapid communication and constant vigilance against incursions, turning the wall into a manned frontier rather than a simple barrier. Under a naming system introduced in 1930, turrets are numbered 1 to 80 from east (A) to west (B) and given numbers as pairs, taking the number of the nearest milecastle to their east.
