Ravenglass Roman Bath House
Ravenglass Roman Bath House (also known as Walls Castle) is a ruined ancient Roman bath house at Ravenglass, Cumbria, England. Belonging to a 2nd-century
The remaining fragment appears to be the west end of a building which was about 40 ft/12 metres wide and about 90 ft/27 metres long (see plan). It consisted of a suite of rooms arranged in a double sequence along the building. The entrance and changing area (apodyterium) contains niches, perhaps originally for statues. The use of the other rooms is not known, but there would have been a range of warm rooms, a hot bath and a cold plunge. The north and south walls have external buttresses which were probably intended to take the weight of a vaulted roof.[3] Excavations were carried out at the bath house in 1881. Remains of the hypocaust heating system were uncovered, but they have since been reburied.[4]
Roman fort
The bath house is located to the north east of the Roman fort. The fort's defences were originally of turf and timber, although in the early 3rd century a stone wall was constructed. The fort appears to have been occupied continuously from AD 130 until the end of the 4th century.
There is evidence that the bath house was fed with water from higher ground to the east of the fort. As the bath house is located outside the walls of the fort, some sources assume it served the civilian community as well as the military. However, prior to 2013, when a dig was started, little information was available about the vicus at Ravenglass.[5]
Conservation and access
The relatively good state of preservation of the bath house is believed to be attributable to its being adapted for domestic use in the medieval period.
The site can be reached from Ravenglass via a "miles without stiles" pedestrian route (part of a project to improve access for people with disabilities to places in the Lake District National Park). The route follows a private road which runs parallel to the railway.[8] The ditch of the fort is visible from the bath house, but it is on private land and is bisected by the railway tracks of the
See also
- Hardknott Roman Fort in Cumbria (nearest military bath house, between the fort and the modern road)
- Segedunum in Newcastle upon Tyne (reconstructed military bath house)[9]
- List of Roman public baths
References
- ^ Holder, Paul. (2004) "Chapter 2. Roman Place Names on the Cumbrian Coast" from Wilson, R. J. A. & Caruana, I. D. (eds), Romans on the Solway: Essays in honour of Richard Bellhouse pp.52-65, Kendal: CWAAS
- ^ Hyde, M. and Pevsner, N. (2010) Cumbria. The Buildings of England, Yale University Press
- ^ "Ruins of a Roman Bath and the Foundations of a Castle – Ravenglass and Muncaster". cambridgemilitaryhistory.com. 30 April 2015.
- ^ "Ravenglass Roman Bath House: History and Research". Portico. English Heritage. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
- ^ "Ravenglass Roman fort: Project to unearth civilian settlement". May 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ "Ravenglass". Pastscape. English Heritage. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
- ^ Ravenglass Roman fort bath-house, also known as Walls Castle
- ^ "Miles without stiles". Lake District National Park. 29 June 2009. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
- ^ "The Roman Baths - Segedunum Roman Fort". Archived from the original on 1 November 2013.