Military Way

• The Military Way was a Road that followed Hadrian's Wall from Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend in Newcastle.
• It was built to the south of the Wall and runs for the most part, along the top of the North Mound of the Vallum or in between the curtain Wall and the Vallum.

Description

• The road was probably developed in depth after the withdrawal from the Antonine Wall in 162 CE.
• The Military Way was not built for wheeled vehicles as it is only 20 feet (6m) wide, was unpaved and has sharp gradients in several places.
• It was used by the legionaries and the cavalry to connect between the Forts, Milecastles and Turrets along the Wall. Where it diverged from the Wall it apparently had spurs connecting to the milecastles.
• Where rivers had to be crossed, the Military Way ran beside Hadrian's Wall on Bridges at Chesters Bridge and Willowford Bridge.

The Route of the Military Way

• The Forts (16)
  1. Bowness-on-Solway (Mais)
  2. Drumburgh (Coggabata)
  3. Burgh-by-Sands (Aballava)
  4. Stanwix (Uxelodunum or Petriana)
  5. Castlesteads (Camboglanna)
  6. Birdoswald (Banna) (Visitor Centre)
  7. Carvoran (Magnis) (Roman Army Museum at Greenhead)
  8. Great Chesters (Aesica)
  9. Housesteads (Vercovicium) (Visitor Centre)
  10. Carrawburgh (Procolita)
  11. Chesters (Walwick Chesters) (Cilurnum)
      • Portgate: where Dere Street passed through the Wall.
  12. Halton Chesters (Hunnum)
  13. Rudchester (Vindobala)
  14. Benwell Hill (Condercum)
  15. Newcastle (Pons Aelius) (Great North Museum: Hancock)
  16. Wallsend (Segedunum) (Visitor Centre)

• The Milecastles (80)
  • Roman Milecastles existed between the Forts at one Roman mile intervals.
• The Turrets (158)
  • Roman Turrets were located one third of a Roman mile either side of the milecastles.

Other East-West Roads nearby

• The Military Road  (B6318)
  • The Military Way should not be mistaken for the Military Road which resembles a straight Roman road.
  • The Military Road was built between 1751-1758 and its construction is responsible for causing the most damage to Hadrian’s Wall, as it was built partly beside Hadrian’s Wall and partly over its foundations.
  • It is a dead straight road built during the Jacobite Rising of 1745, and which runs between Heddon-on-the-Wall and Greenhead in order to connect Newcastle with Carlisle.
  • The modern B6318 runs along part of the Military Road.
• The Stanegate (B69)
  • An earlier Roman road called the Stanegate ran to the south of Hadrian's Wall and connected a line of forts between Carlisle and Corbridge.
  • The modern A69 between Carlisle and Corbridge runs parallel to much of the Roman Stanegate, before continuing to Newcastle.

Roman Roads in Britain

• Roman Roads of Britannia

Cavoran Fort, Roman Army Museum, Greenhead