LUGUVALLUM
LUGUVALLUM or
LUGUVALLIUM (Anton. Itin.), LUGUBALUM (Ravennas), now
Carlisle. This town is not mentioned by Ptolemy; neither does it occur in the Notitia.
The reason of its omission in the latter work may be, that, although it stands upon the line of the Wall, the proximity of the great castra, as well as its own strength and population, rendered a fixed garrison unnecessary. Beda (
in Vita S. Cuthberti, 100.8) describes Saint Cuthbert on his visit to Lugubalia, as being shown the walls and a fountain built by the Romans: “venit ad Lugubaliam civitatem, quae a populis Anglorum corrupto Luel vocatur, ut alloqueretur reginam. Postera autem die deducentibus eum civibus ut videret moenia civitatis, fontemque in ea miro quondam Romanorum opere exstructum.” Leland (
Itin. vol. vii. p. 54), after speaking of the Roman architectural and other remains often brought to light in Carlisle, adds, “the hole site of the towne is sore changid. For wher as the stretes were and great edifices now be vacant and garden plottes.” But few remains, if any, of the Roman town are, at the present day, to be noticed; but whenever excavations are made to any considerable depth, the foundations of the buildings of Luguvallum are almost always met with. Very recently a deep drain having been sunk on the north side of the castle, the course of the Great Wall has been ascertained ; previously, the direction it took from
Stanwix, where there was a fortified camp, was uncertain, as above ground in the immediate vicinity of
Carlisle, it has been entirely pulled down.
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