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NGRef: NY5463 OSMap: LR86 Type: Roman Fortlet |
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| Roads | |
|---|---|
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Stanegate: WSW (3) to Old Church (Brampton, Cumbria) Stanegate: ENE (3½) to Nether Denton (Cumbria) | |
| N.G.Ref | Dimensions | Area |
|---|---|---|
| NY 5452 6305 | 246 x 170 feet (75 x 52 m) |
c. 1 acre (0.4 ha) |
The Boothby fortlet occupies the top of a small hill from which the fort at Nether Denton is visible; only the southern and eastern defenses are recorded on aerial photographs, the northern defenses having succumbed to land-slips. It was partially excavated by the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society conducted by F.G. Simpson in 1933, the report appearing in the Society Transactions the following year. The fort is delineated by a single ditch measuring about 10 feet (3 m) wide, backed by a rampart of beaten clay, these defenses measuring about 246 feet NNE-SSW by 170 feet transversely (c. 75 x 52 m) and enclosing an area of just under 1 acre (0.4 ha). There is a break in the middle of the southern defensive ditch, probably indicating a gateway, which was presumably mirrored on the north. The only visible trace on the ground is the ditch marking the south-east corner-angle. The dateable evidence consists of a quantity of south-Gaulish Samian ware of the late-1st/early-2nd century, which indicates that the fortlet was part of the original system on the Stanegate.