Milecastle 66 facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Milecastle 66 |
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The River Eden close to the site of Milecastle 66 and the Roman bridge
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 Location in Cumbria
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| Type | Milecastle |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 54°54′08″N 2°56′29″W / 54.902135°N 2.941333°W |
| County | Cumbria |
| Country | England |
Milecastle 66 (Stanwix Bank) was a small Roman fort, called a milecastle, built along Hadrian's Wall in ancient Britain. These milecastles were like mini-forts placed every Roman mile along the wall.
Exploring Milecastle 66
Milecastle 66 was located on the north side of the River Eden. This area is now part of Carlisle, England, near a cricket ground. During Roman times, a bridge crossed the Eden River here. This bridge connected the milecastle to the Roman fort and town of Luguvalium on the river's south side.
In the 1500s, a historian named William Camden wrote about seeing large stones. These stones were the remains of the ancient Roman bridge in the riverbed. Later, in 1772, Thomas Pennant visited the site. He described seeing "vestiges of some dikes" which looked like a small square fort. This was likely the milecastle itself, built to guard the river crossing.
In 1951, the Eden River was dredged. Workers found nearly 100 stones from the old Roman bridge. You can see most of these stones today in Bitts Park, Carlisle. Sadly, there are no visible remains of Milecastle 66 left today.
Turrets Connected to Milecastle 66
Each milecastle along Hadrian's Wall had two smaller guard towers, called turrets, linked to it. These turrets were placed about one-third and two-thirds of a Roman mile to the west of the milecastle. Soldiers from the milecastle would likely have guarded these turrets.
The turrets connected to Milecastle 66 are known as Turret 66A and Turret 66B. However, archaeologists did not look for these specific turrets until after 1961. Because of this, the exact locations of Turret 66A and Turret 66B have not yet been discovered.
