Wall Mile 37

Hadrian's Wall stretches from the east to west coast of England and was an important frontier of the Roman Empire. Building of the wall began in AD 122 and took six years to complete it’s 84 mile (80 Roman mile) length. Soldiers were garrisoned along the line of the wall in large forts, smaller milecastles, and intervening turrets. The Vallum, a large ditch with mounds on either side, ran along the south side of the wall, protecting the rear of the frontier. Hadrian's Wall was designated as a World Heritage Site in 1987.

Wall Mile 37:

• Milecastle 37 - extensive remains
• Turret 37A (Rapishaw Gap) - visible only as a slight earthwork
• Turret 37B (Hotbank Crags) - only just visible as a stone studded platform

Nearby Roman sites:

• Roman signal station on Barcombe Hill by Stanegate (Roman Road), about 1 mile south of Hadrian's Wall

Scheduled Monument (#1018585): Housesteads fort, section of Wall and vallum between the field boundary west of milecastle 36 and the field boundary west of turret 37a in wall miles 36 and 37:

Milecastle 37 is situated on the crest of Housesteads Crags with extensive views to the north and south. It is visible as an upstanding structure which has been partly reconstructed and consolidated. The walls have a maximum height of 2.2m internally and the single barrack block in the east half survives to 1m in height. The milecastle was partly excavated between 1988 and 1989 by Crow when it was shown that the north gateway of this milecastle had been deliberately blocked and then later partly demolished.

Turret 37a was located on the crest of the scarp on the west side of Rapishaw Gap. It survives as a buried feature beneath a turf cover. The turret was deliberately demolished in an early phase and the Wall was rebuilt across the site.

Scheduled Monument (#1010966): Hadrian's Wall and associated features between the field boundary west of turret 37a and the road to Steel Rigg car park in wall miles 37, 38 and 39:

Turret 37b is located on the crest of Hotbank Crags with very extensive views in all directions. It survives as a turf-covered platform. The platform measures 6.3m north to south and 10m across and is up to 1.4m high. There is a small enclosure on the east side of the platform which appears to abut both the south side of the Wall and the east side of the turret wall. It could therefore be contemporary with the Wall and may have served as a small stable. It was located in 1911 by Simpson. 

The course of the Roman road known as the Military Way, which ran along the corridor between the Wall and the vallum linking turrets, milecastles and forts, survives well as a linear causeway throughout this section. Some stone is visible on the south scarp where it has been built up to make a level surface. This scarp appears to have had a stone revetment. The south scarp averages 0.4m in height, although it reaches up to 1.2m high in places. West of Peel Farm the Military Way is overlain by the road to Steel Rigg car park.

Scheduled Monument (#1010972): The vallum and a British settlement between the field boundary west of turret 37a and the road to Steel Rigg car park, in wall miles 37, 38 and 39:

The vallum survives well as an upstanding earthwork throughout most of this section. Where extant the north mound averages 1.7m high, the south mound 1m high and the ditch 1.2m deep. Between High Shield and Twice Brewed the B6318 road overlies parts of the vallum. However, where it runs along the line of the vallum the road lies on the south berm, which has resulted in some disturbance to the monument. To the south of Hotbank Crags the remains of the vallum have been reduced and the ditch silted up, though its course can still be traced.

A native British settlement is situated on the west side of Milking Gap between Hadrian's Wall and the vallum. It is located in a dip on the springline at the base of the slope to the south of Hotbank Crags. It survives as a series of upstanding stone remains and buried features. The settlement itself includes a rectilinear enclosure which has been subdivided around a central stone hut which has an entrance in its east side. The enclosure walls are made with double faced boulders and average 2m wide and 0.8m high. The central hut has a diameter of 7m and has internally faced walls 1.3m wide and 0.4m high. The remains of other huts survive to the south and east of the central hut with walls less than 1m wide and 0.25m high. Excavation in 1937 by Kilbride-Jones discovered pottery which showed that the settlement was occupied during the second century AD.