En un regard
Le château en bref
Vindolanda, now Chesterholm, is a Roman auxiliary fort lying just south of the Stanegate, the military road that linked Corbridge with Carlisle, in the parish of Henshaw (Northumberland), within Northumberland National Park. It belongs to the chain of forts that served as the northern frontier for some twenty years before construction began in 122 on Hadrian's Wall, a short distance to the north.
The site has an exceptional stratigraphy: five successive timber forts, the first built in the mid-80s after Agricola's campaigns and garrisoned by the First Cohort of Tungrians, then by the Ninth Cohort of Batavians, preceded two stone forts. The first, of Antonine date, covered about 1.6 ha; the second, visible today, was built in the first quarter of the 3rd century (about 154 x 93 m). A military annexe, followed by a civil settlement (vicus) with a bath house, developed to the west; the vicus was abandoned before 270, while the fort remained occupied until at least the early 5th century.
The waterlogged soils have preserved organic material of extreme rarity in Britain, including the famous wooden writing tablets and structural timbers, shedding light on military administration and daily life. Two milestones still stand in situ. The walls, gates, principia and part of the annexe are consolidated and visible; the rest remains buried. The site is a Scheduled Monument and a major centre of excavations that are still ongoing.
