Wall Mile 78

Hadrian's Wall survives throughout this section as a buried feature. West of milecastle 78 the Wall turns northwards to follow the Solway coast in contrast to the vallum which runs straight in this section. It is not certain whether the ditch to the north of the Wall was provided in this section, as a ditch would have been superfluous so close to the shore and liable to tidal flooding. There is no evidence for the ditch on its depicted line. The Wall in this sector was initially constructed in turf, which was replaced in the second half of the second century by the stone wall.

Milecastle 78 was located and partly excavated in 1934 by Simpson, Richmond and MacIntyre. It is situated 110m north west of the access road to Glendale caravan park. Only the west wall was examined in the excavations and was found to be 2.8m wide. One course of masonry survived of the inner face above the footings, but the outer face had been robbed. The overall dimensions of the milecastle are not yet known.

Like all milecastles in the western part of Hadrian's Wall, it was originally built with turf ramparts and timber gateways and buildings, but was replaced in stone in the second half of the second century. The remains of the stone milecastle survive as buried remains. The excavators did not record whether remains of the primary turf and timber phase of the milecastle survive, but they are likely to survive beneath and alongside the remains of the stone milecastle also as buried remains.

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, has not been confirmed in this section.

The course of the vallum is known in this section. The vallum ditch can be traced as a depression up to 0.8m deep. The vallum mounds are not visible in this section and have been reduced and levelled by ploughing. They survive as buried features.

Hadrian's Wall survives here as buried remains with no indications visible on the ground. However its course is known here from the identification of turret 78a in the 18th century by the antiquarian John Horsley, and excavation in 1948 by Simpson, Richmond and Hodgson confirmed the location.

The remains of turret 78a survive as buried remains under the hedge on the south side of the road to Port Carlisle 30m north of Kirkland House Farm.

Hadrian's Wall runs westwards along the crest of a raised beach from Port Carlisle for 700m and then turns north west to run towards Bowness-on-Solway. West of the site of milecastle 79, for a distance of 200m, the remains of the Wall lie beneath a field boundary visible as a bank 1m high surmounted by a hedge. The indications are that the Wall survives as upstanding remains of the core and probably also the faces several courses high with undisturbed tumble on either side beneath the earth bank. At the west end of this length the Wall is exposed either side of a modern field gate, standing up to four courses high with the footing flags exposed across the gateway. However, around the site of milecastle 79 and west of the north westerly turn in direction the Wall survives as a buried feature with no visible indications on the ground. The Wall in this sector was initially constructed in turf, which was replaced on the same line in the second half of the second century AD by the Stone Wall. It has not yet been determined whether the Wall was fronted by a ditch in this section. The proximity of the coast would have made a ditch superfluous and a ditch of the normal wall ditch proportions would have been liable to tidal flooding.

The course of the Roman road known as the Military Way, which ran along the corridor between the Wall and vallum linking turrets, milecastles and forts, has not been confirmed in this section. It is expected to run parallel to the Wall a few metres from its south face.

The course of the vallum is known in this section with intermittent surface traces visible. The vallum ditch survives as a faint shallow depression and a short section of the south mound is visible as an earthwork averaging 0.5m high to the south west of milecastle 79. Elsewhere the vallum mounds are not visible on the ground and survive as buried remains.

The course of the vallum westwards is not known from a point 150m west of the measured site of turret 79a, and its western terminus has not yet been discovered.