MELANDRA CASTLE
(“Ardotalia”) Derbyshire,
England.
Auxiliary fort, probably to be identified as Ardotalia, near Glossop. The 2 ha site lies on the
tip of a spur overlooking the Etherow river and is almost
square; the fort faces N. Excavation early in this century
revealed much of the plan, including the principia and
several barracks. Historically the fort follows the pattern
familiar in the area. After foundation in the Flavian
period the timber and earth fort was rebuilt in stone in
the Trajanic period. Throughout its life three widely
spaced ditches guarded the less protected S side.
Further excavation of the area of the vicus in 1966-69
defined the line of the road to the S and showed that the
whole vicus area had been protected by a ditch and
rampart cutting off the whole N end of the spur on which
the fort stands. Originally the exit of the road to the S
was guarded by an inturned clavicula. Beside the road
within the enclosure lay a complex series of timber buildings of Flavian and later date, while farther S cremation
burials mark the site of a cemetery. Another road led
round the head of a small gully towards an imposing
timber building 50 m long. A plausible parallel has been
seen in the mansio at Benwell. The building was deliberately demolished rather than destroyed ca. A.D. 140,
and the same thing may have happened in the fort proper. The site may thus have been abandoned with the Antonine reconquest of lowland Scotland.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G.D.B. Jones, “The Romans in the
North-West,”
Northern History 3 (1968)
MI; P. V. Webster, “Excavations at Melandra Castle,”
Derbyshire Archaeological Journal (1971)
M.
G.D.B. JONES
