Milecastle 48 above the Poltross Burn at Gilsland, nicknamed the King's Stables locally, with a rare stone stair still climbing to its rampart
Open accessfree to visit at any reasonable time
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
A stone stairway still climbs one corner of this milecastle, up to where Roman soldiers once walked its rampart, just yards from a modern railway line at Gilsland. Poltross Burn is milecastle 48, an unusually well-preserved example of the small walled gateway forts the Romans built roughly every Roman mile along Hadrian’s Wall, and an unusually large one, with barrack buildings on both sides of a stone road running through the middle. Roman troops occupied the site from the 120s AD until well into the 4th century, above a steep little ravine cut by the Poltross Burn stream; by the early 19th century it was known locally as the King’s Stables. Excavations have turned up a soldier’s brooch, a sword-scabbard fitting, pieces of armour and horse harness, which suggests mounted troops were posted here at some point. The site sits right on the Hadrian’s Wall Path, open at no charge, with Willowford Wall and Bridge and Harrow’s Scar Milecastle both a short walk west.
