Leahill Turret and Piper Sike Turret - Hadrian's Wall
Piper Sike Turret, viewed from the south-west

History of Leahill and Piper Sike Turrets

The Romans built Piper Sike and Lea Hill turrets as part of a wall, begun in AD 122 on the orders of Emperor Hadrian, that defined the north-west boundary of their empire. Turrets like this were built into Hadrian’s Wall, two to every Roman mile, for small garrisons of soldiers to shelter in and keep watch.

This pair of turrets, about 500 metres apart, were part of the sector of Hadrian’s Wall first built in turf and later replaced in stone. Today, they demonstrate how the Wall allowed the Romans to monitor their north-western frontier.

An artist's impression of a turret on Hadrian's Wall, with the Wall built of turf on either side
An artist’s impression of Piper Sike Turret showing how it may have looked within the turf section of Hadrian’s Wall, around AD 125
© Historic England/English Heritage Trust (illustration by Peter Lorimer)

Hadrian’s Wall

The original design for Hadrian’s Wall required a continuous ‘curtain’ wall and V-shaped ditch to run 80 Roman miles (73 miles/117.5km) from Wallsend in the east to Burgh-by-Sands in the west. About 160 turrets were built two to every Roman mile (about 1.48km) along it, providing vantage points from which soldiers could monitor the landscape.

Pairs of turrets were positioned equidistantly between fortlets, known as milecastles, where garrisons of up to about 30 soldiers guarded gates that allowed travel through the Wall.

From the outset, most of the Wall was built from stone. In the west, however, for around 30 miles between the river Irthing and Bowness on the Solway Firth, it was originally built of turf, probably because this was easier and quicker to obtain from the surrounding landscape than stone. The only stone-built parts of the turf Wall were the turrets.

After a few years the turf Wall was replaced in stone. The stone Wall survives up to a height of over 2 metres to the west of Leahill, but once would have stood over 5 metres high.

Foundations of a small square building with a road running beside it
Piper Sike Turret (51a), viewed from the north-west, with the entrance door in the opposite corner. Part of Hadrian’s Wall which replaced the earlier turf construction can be seen in the foreground, butting up against the turret

Turrets on Hadrian’s Wall

Turrets were typically about 6 metres square externally. They were recessed into the thickness of Hadrian’s Wall and entered by a door in the south wall.

The full height and design of the turrets above the ground floor is uncertain. They may have had an open observation platform with a parapet, but in the damp northern conditions of northern Britannia they may have had pitched roofs, covered with tiles, thatch or shingles. The evidence differs from one turret to another, and roof construction may have varied over the centuries of occupation. A capstone – a stone suitable for sealing the top of a flat surface – was found inside Leahill Turret, suggesting that it had a parapet.

Using a numbering system introduced in 1930, turrets are numbered 1 to 80 from east to west and given numbers as pairs, taking the number of the nearest milecastle to their east. Leahill is 51a and Piper Sike 51b.

A drawing of a stone turret with a wall to either side A cutaway drawing showing the interior of a turret with Roman soldiers inside

Leahill (turret 51b) as it may have looked around AD 160. Use the slider to reveal the turret interior. © Historic England/English Heritage Trust (illustrations by Peter Lorimer)

LEAVING THEIR MARK

Hadrian’s Wall was built by legionaries, the citizen soldiers of the Roman army. There were three legions stationed in Britain: the 20th ‘Valeria Victrix’, based at Chester, the 6th ‘Victrix’, based at York, and the 2nd ‘Augusta’, based at Caerleon. They had a pool of 15,000 men to draw upon, although not all of these would have worked on the Wall at the same time.

A line drawing showing a Latin inscription on a stone
This drawing of the centurial stone found near Piper Sike Turret was made before the inscription became illegible. The Latin translates as ‘the century of Candidius Crescens’

Each legion was divided into smaller units, known as cohorts, and then subdivided into centuries of around 80 soldiers, commanded by a centurion. The soldiers would have been trained in construction techniques – for example, surveying, quarrying and stonemasonry.

Each century was allocated various sections of wall to construct. A stone found 128 metres east of Piper Sike Turret is inscribed in abbreviated Latin which translates as ‘the century of Candidius Crescens’. This tells us that the centurion Candidius Crescens and his 80 men had built this stretch of the Wall and wanted to leave their mark.

The stone is illegible today, but many others, recording the names of Roman centurions, have been found along the Wall are on display in the Clayton Museum at Chesters Roman Fort.

A drawing of a Roman soldier dressed in armour and carrying a spear
A typical Roman auxiliary soldier. Auxiliaries were recruited from across the Empire for their specialist skills and were essential to the defence and maintenance of Hadrian’s Wall
© Historic England

Life on the frontier

After their completion, the Wall and its fortifications were manned by auxiliaries – soldiers recruited from non-citizens living all over the Roman Empire. They were predominantly stationed at large forts, such as Birdoswald, in garrisons of 500 or 1,000. The turrets provided shelter for small detachment of soldiers to cook, sleep and relax during the periods when they monitored the landscape or patrolled the Wall.

Archaeologists discovered that the ground floor at Leahill was covered with straw and contained two hearths for cooking and keeping warm. Finds included fragments of cooking pots, a grindstone for making flour, a buckle, a coin and the remains of animal bones. Glass fragments indicate that there may have been glazed windows.

The finds from both turrets suggest that they were probably not used much after the 2nd century AD. This may have been because fewer watch towers were needed in this sector than envisaged in the original plan for the Wall. Other turrets in the area remained in use for longer: Banks East (no. 52a), for example, was used until the late 4th century AD.

Black and white photo showing walls mainly hidden by vegetation
Leahill Turret in 1938, before excavation
© Historic England Archive

Discovery and excavation

The discovery and excavation of these two turrets during the 1930s were steps in the process of understanding that the turf Wall extended from the river Irthing all the way to Bowness-on-Solway.

The archaeologist Frank Simpson, who established this fact, initially found and examined turrets of turf Wall type – free-standing stone towers against which the secondary stone wall butted – westwards from Birdoswald. Leahill and Piper Sike were two of those he recognised in trial excavation in 1927.

Both turrets were taken into state guardianship in 1952. Subsequently, Leahill was fully excavated in 1958 by Charmian Phillips with the help of Charles Anderson and the Ministry of Works (a predecessor of English Heritage), which then consolidated the remains. Piper Sike was excavated in 1970 by Dorothy Charlesworth and members of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, before its consolidation by the Ministry of Works.

Hadrian’s Wall in the area

Lea Hill and Piper Sike are about 2 miles west of Birdoswald Roman Fort and are part of the Birdoswald Roman Trail. This route takes you along some of the most striking sections of Hadrian’s Wall, including continuous well-preserved stretches of the curtain Wall, the remains of a Roman bridge, milecastles, a signal tower and a fort that was once home to over 800 soldiers.

  • Visit Birdoswald Roman Fort

    Birdoswald remained in occupation throughout the Roman period, and its defences are the best preserved of any along the Wall.

  • Visit Willowford Wall, Turrets and Bridge

    This fine 914-metre stretch of Hadrian’s Wall includes two turrets and the impressive remains of a bridge which carried the Wall across the river Irthing.

  • Visit Harrows Scar Milecastle

    A mile-long section of the Wall, rebuilt in stone later in Hadrian's reign, which survives up to 2 metres high and contains a number of Roman inscriptions.

  • Visit Pike Hill Signal Tower

    The remains of one of a network of signal towers pre-dating Hadrian’s Wall, Pike Hill was later joined to the Wall at an angle of 45 degrees.

More about Hadrian’s Wall

  • Hadrian’s Wall: History and Stories

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  • Emperor Hadrian

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  • Buy the guidebook to Hadrian’s Wall

    The English Heritage guidebook to the Wall provides maps, plans and tours of all the key sites, as well as a history of the Wall and its forts.

  • EXPLORE ROMAN BRITAIN

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