page_title: Hardknott Roman Fort
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Hardknott Roman Fort / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: A Roman damp-proof course at Hardknott Roman Fort. The layer of slate in the wall blocks rising damp.
context_page_description: Hardknott Roman Fort is an archeological site, the remains of the Roman fort Mediobogdum, located on the western side of the Hardknott Pass in the English county of Cumbria.
context_section_description: The fort is square with rounded corners, 114 metres long externally, or 105 metres internally, the rampart wall being about 1.7 metres thick with ditches adding to the total width of the rampart. The low walls of the fort were "restored" some years ago, a slate course showing the height of the walls before their rebuilding.
  The outer wall has four gates, at the centre of each side, and lookout towers at each corner. Within the walls are the remaining outlines of several buildings: two side-by-side granaries, the garrison headquarters building and garrison commander's villa, or Praetorium. In addition to these stone buildings, timber structures would have housed barracks for the mounted auxilia.
  Outside the square of the fort are the remains of the bath house (which has a rare circular sudatorium), and the levelled parade ground, which is considered to be the finest surviving example in the Western Empire.
  The parade ground is approximately two hundred yards higher up the slope to the east of the fort. A track led up to it from the East Gate of the fort. A plan of the fort by R. G. Collingwood in 1930 shows the parade ground to have been as big as the fort, with embanked edges to ensure a level surface.
caption: On many walls a slate layer demarcates original Roman construction (below) and modern reconstruction (above)
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