Vindobala

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Vindobala was a Roman fort near Rudchester in Northumberland. It was the fourth fort on Hadrian’s Wall, about 11 km west of Condercum and 7.5 miles east of Halton Chesters. The fort sits along the B6318 Military Road, which follows the wall at that point. It guarded the valley of the March Burn, an old route to the Tyne ford at Newburn. To the east the ground drops to the Rudchester Burn.

The fort is oblong, about 157 metres long (north–south) and 117 metres wide (east–west), covering about 4.5 acres. It sticks a little north of the wall to allow quick access to the north. There were four main gates with double doors and two smaller gates. The main gate was on the north wall; the east and west gates opened on the north side of the wall. The south wall had one main gate and two smaller gates along a southern military road. Towers stood at each corner and by the gates.

Vindobala was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in the late 2nd to early 3rd century. It fell out of use in the last quarter of the 3rd century but was re-occupied around 370 AD, with timber-framed buildings on stone foundations, and remained occupied until the end of Roman rule. The Vallum ditch lay about 220 metres south of the fort, and there was a vicus (settlement) to the south and southwest.

South of the fort on a hill is a cistern known as the Giant’s Grave. Today little remains visible above ground except for some mounds along the Military Road.

In the 18th and 19th centuries stones were taken from the site for farms and for building the road. The fort probably housed about 500 men, likely a cohort of 500 and part-mounted. In the late 4th century, the fort was garrisoned by the First Cohort of Frisiavones, troops from the coast of what is now northern Germany.

A life-size statue of Hercules was found at the site in 1760 and is now in the Great North Museum in Newcastle. Excavations in 1924 and 1962 uncovered parts of the gateways, a large granary, part of the headquarters, and a hypocaust (underfloor heating) from the commandant’s house. In 1844 five Mithras altars were found nearby, connected with the Rudchester Mithraeum, a Mithras temple built in the 3rd century and destroyed in the 4th. The 1924 digging found part of the north wall set on coarse white stones, and there may have been an inscription marking wall work, but the inscription has not survived.