Turret 26b at Brunton, unusually tall for a Hadrian's Wall turret, also shows where the Wall's width changed mid-build
Open accessfree to visit at any reasonable time
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
Turret 26b at Brunton rises to roughly 2.5 metres, unusually tall for one of the small stone watchtowers built into Hadrian’s Wall. Soldiers of the 20th Legion built it, and it stands within a 69-metre stretch of Wall near the river crossing at Chesters. Builders raised turrets ahead of the main Wall, with short stub walls left ready to bond into it, and at Brunton the two stub walls don’t match in width, one noticeably thicker than the other, a leftover from the point in construction when the Wall’s planned width was cut back. A stone found just west of the turret names the century — a unit of about 80 men — of a soldier, Paulus Aper, from the legion’s ninth cohort, and is now kept in Chesters Museum. The worn doorway threshold in the turret’s south wall, with grooves for its wooden jambs, is still there to see. A short walk brings you to Planetrees, where the same change of plan shows up again.
