Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre

Evocatively sited amid the East Kent marshes, Richborough is perhaps the most symbolically important of all Roman sites in Britain, witnessing both the beginning and almost the end of Roman rule here. The site is now two miles from the sea; in AD 43 it overlooked a sheltered lagoon harbour. Here, all but certainly, the invading Roman forces first landed and established a bridgehead. This event was later commemorated by a mighty triumphal arch, whose cross-shaped foundations still survive here. Proclaiming that the Roman conquest of Britain was complete, this also provided an impressive gateway for arrivals at what became the province’s main entry port.

By the mid-3rd century, however, Roman Britain was under attack by sea-borne Saxon and other raiders. The once-prosperous commercial port of Rutupiae was hastily fortified, first by the digging of the great triple ditches and ramparts still visible round the site of the arch. But within a decade or so the defences were completely revamped, and Richborough was provided with its circuit of towered stone walls and outer ditches, becoming one of the most important of the ‘Saxon Shore’ forts. It was also among the last to be regularly occupied: there is evidence of a large Roman population here in the early 5th century, some of them worshipping in the little Early Christian church discovered in one corner of the fort.

You can choose to reach the fort as the Romans would have done, by boat. Boats sail from Sandwich, but not every day: please contact the site to check times.