[NY 83987029] Brown Dikes [TI] Roman Camp [GS] (1)

Roman temporary camp. (2)

The outline of the camp is visible as a low, mutilated bank and slight ditch with the remains of tutuli at each of the four entrances. (3)

Resurveyed at 1/2500; correctly described above. (4)

Surveyed by RCHME. (5)

Scheduled. (6)

RCHME account. (7)

This camp has been re-assessed in connection with RCHME's survey and publication of Roman Camps in England. The following descriptive account is taken from the published text.
This camp is situated in a dominant position at the SE end of a ridge known as Brown Moor, at a height of 245 m above OD and 500 m to the S of Hadrian's Wall. The ground, which is in permanent rough pasture, slopes gently away in all directions except the NW; here there is a slight rise to the summit of the ridge but this is not sufficient to block the panoramic view. The camp is almost perfectly square with sharply rounded corners. It measures 67 m across the interior, giving an area of 0.4 ha (1.1 acres). The generally well-preserved earthen ramparts are about 5 m wide and 0.2 m high above the interior. The ditch is 3 m wide and its inner scarp is up to 1 m deep along the N side where it is best preserved. Gates in the centres of the N and E sides are defined by breaks about 5 m wide. Each is defended by a well-defined traverse, 0.4 m high, with a shallow outer ditch 2 m wide and 0.3 m deep. There is a similar traverse in the centre of the S side and another just S of the centre of the W side; neither is as well defined as those on the N and E, but both are obvious. There is no corresponding break in the rampart on either the S or W sides. The point in the W side where the gate should have been is overlain by a modern drystone wall but there is no clear sign, in the later phases of activity on the site , that either the rampart or the ditch were interrupted. There is a slight but ill-defined break in the outer scarp of the ditch behind the traverse on the S side. The interior of the camp, which is slightly domed, is covered by clumps of thicker tussock grass. No demonstrably Roman internal features are visible. Set inside the S corner are the remains of four rectangular structures, probably shielings, with another inside the E corner. The footings of these structures are very slight, consisting of low turf banks measuring 1.4 wide but no more than 0.3 m high and averaging 8.4 m by 5.7 m externally overall. Immediately to the S of the two structures against the S side, along the top of the rampart, is a very slight raised line of tussock grass no more than 0.1 m high and 0.2 m wide and shown as a dashed line on the plan. This may possibly be the remains of some fence or wind-break associated with the shielings. The camp was one of only two noted by Horsley (1732, 146, map 6 (8b)) the other being Watchclose, Cumbria (see NY 46 SE 1); he made no mention of the shielings which were probably already hard to trace. Full information is included in the NMR Archive. (8a)

The Roman temporary camp, centred at NY 8398 7030, was mapped from aerial photographs as part of Hadrian's Wall NMP project. The internal buildings were not clearly evident on the material available to the project to enable mapping. (8c)

Located on the English Heritage map of Hadrian's Wall 2010. (8d)

General association with HER 31999 (shielings), HER 32056 (subrectangular enclosure). (8)