Chesters Roman Fort

Side panel from an altar which may have been dedicated to a woodland or hunting deity. Held at Chesters Museum.

Chesters Roman Fort is the most complete Roman cavalry fort in Britain - one of a series of permanent forts built during the construction of Hadrian’s Wall. The cavalry fort, known to the Romans as Cilurnum, was built in about AD 124. It housed some 500 cavalrymen and was occupied until the Romans left Britain in the 5th century.

Pioneering excavations in the 19th century exposed the structures visible today. These excavations yielded one of the best collections of inscriptions and sculpture on Hadrian’s Wall, now housed in the museum at Chesters.