Ravenscar, Yorkshire

Coastal Signal Station

NGRef: NZ9801
OSMap: LR94
Type: Signal Station
Roads
Possible Military Road: NW (8) to DICTIVM (Whitby, North Yorkshire)
Possible Military Road: SE (9) to Scarborough (North Yorkshire)

Sandstone Slab from Ravenscar
IVSTINIANVS P P VINDICIANVS MASBIER TVRRM CASTRVM FECIT A SO
"Justinianus the First Centurion and Vindicianus the Magistrate,¹ built this tower and fortification from its foundations."
(RIB 721; sandstone slab)
  1. Based on the transposition of Masbier to Magister.

A sandstone slab was found in 1774 alongside the minor road from Scarborough to Robin Hood's Bay, about 9 miles north of Scarborough, while digging foundations for the Raven Hall Hotel at Ravenscar. This stone represents concrete evidence of a small Roman "fortification with [watch] tower" on the cliff-top here. The stone now resides in the Yorkshire Museum, York.

See: The Roman Inscriptions of Britain by R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright (Oxford 1965);
Roman Britain by Peter Salway (London 1981) p.384 fn.
All translations, including any inherent mistakes, are my own.

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