A quiet, unstaffed Hadrian's Wall fort, known to the Romans as Aesica, now low turf ramparts in an open field
Open accessfree to visit at any reasonable time
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
Not every fort on Hadrian’s Wall has a car park and a ticket desk. Great Chesters, which the Romans called Aesica, is one of the quiet ones — a fort in wall miles 42 and 43 that survives as low grassy ramparts and scattered stonework in a field, with no visitor centre. It was one of the forts set along the Wall to hold the northern frontier, added a few years after building began around AD 122, and garrisoned by a few hundred auxiliary soldiers. You reach it on foot, a short walk from Cawfields Quarry along the Hadrian’s Wall Path, which shares this stretch of high country in Northumberland with the Pennine Way. The village of Haltwhistle is the nearest place for supplies.
More at the National Heritage List entry
