Verteris Roman Fort / Brough Castle

The Roman fort of Verteris was constructed on the highest part of a ridge on the south bank of Swindale Beck, a tributary of the River Eden, slightly downstream of its confluence with Augill Beck. It lies at the western end of the Stainmore Pass, a route followed by the main Roman road through the Pennines that connects the Roman legionary fortress at York (Eboracum) with the fort at Carlisle (Luguvalium). The occupation of the fort possibly dates from the governorship of Agricola (AD 78-84) to the end of the C4. The fort’s enclosure measured about 3 acres (1.2ha) while an extra-mural settlement or vicus lay on the fort’s east side and a Roman cemetery lay to the east of the vicus. The only evidence for the Roman garrison station at Brough comes from later copies of the Notitia Dignitatum, an official late-C4/early C5 listing of Roman civil and military posts throughout the empire, which names the garrison at about this time as the Numerus Directorum.