Learchild Roman Fort

En un regard

Le château en bref

Learchild Roman fort occupies a slight rise overlooking the Coe Burn, near the hamlet of Low Learchild, in the parish of Edlingham, west of Alnwick. It is not a medieval castle but a Roman military camp, now almost invisible: its defences survive only as very faint earthworks and cropmarks, amid pastures ploughed for centuries. The interest of the site lies in the superimposition of two successive forts, which shows how Roman fortifications evolved during the conquest and occupation of northern England in the 1st and 2nd centuries. The fort is traditionally identified with ALAVNA, an ancient name linked to the River Aln, an identification accepted with caution by specialists. Protected as a Scheduled Monument, the site lies on private farmland; only a slight bank of the rampart remains discernible from a distance, and a small access road apparently follows the line of the camp's internal streets.