The South, Porta Principalis Gate of Kanovium

© Kanovium Project

Possibly one of the most picturesque views at Kanovium, the south, Porta Principalis Dextra gate was found to be reasonably well preserved, though it provided difficulties for interpretation, in that it had been widely altered by the Romans in a manner more akin to the 3rd Century A.D than in the mid 2nd century style the fort was found to remain in.  Possibly starting life during the initial construction of the Flavian period as a twin timber towered gate, with dual roadways, though only one tower appeared in use, the presence of several post holes attesting to this fact.  When the work to convert the fort structures to stone commenced, at an unknown date, but most likely the Trajanic period, the new masonry gate was built on the lines of the earlier timber period structure. However, some building stones, ready chamfered to fit this new gate, had been found in a position to indicate they never reached the gate, so it seems likely that the eastern tower, far side of opening, was discontinued, the gate being converted to a single tower type which would have been in the foreground of this image.  The gate also featured a blocking wall at the area of the east portal, and also evidence of the entire structure being converted into a flat roofed shed in the late medieval period, though no dating evidence was found to prove this.  The incidence of this happening in the late medieval period is not uncommon, the walls must have been still standing to a fair height, so it could have been connected to the late medieval farmstead nearby, and just been a shed for cattle.  At Housesteads fort on Hadrian’s Wall the south gate had been converted to a ‘Basle House’ a fortified manor house, typical in this area in the medieval period, while near to Birdoswald Roman fort, the milecastle at Harrow’s Scar had also been converted into a small farmhouse.

In the Excavation Report is a similar picture, while taken at a deeper level due to the removal of backfilled earth, the gate can be seen, featuring the widely misaligned walls common throughout this fort, it had a curious feature in that the front wall of the west guard tower was 8 feet thick and can only mean that the later single towered gate featured a fairly large and elaborate archway, it needed such a wall as the walls of the tower seemed to be too flimsy to support the weight.  Another curious feature was the fact the ditch was continuous in the front of this gate, usually broken here by a roadway emerging out of the fort, this ditch appeared, some evidence remaining, for all its life span to be spanned by wooden bridge, even a drawbridge, the visible remains give no such clue today.

The South Gate Looking North West

© Kanovium Project

The North East Angle of Kanovium

© Kanovium Project

This is the north east corner of Kanovium fort, and presumably because of the proximity to the old burial ground of St Mary’s Church it received absolutely no attention from Baillie Reynolds excavations.  If this is early 20th century good manners on the part of the team, or perhaps the church had some objection to digging adjacent to their graveyard I cannot comment. So while a barrack block was traced near the lychgate, and also the nearby north gate was just about planned, this entire section from the north gate all the way around this corner to the east gate, about a quarter of the total rampart length of the whole fort went unexamined.  This was a shame, certainly excavation near the boundary wall may have rendered it unstable and revealed burials, but the fort corner above was far enough way from the churchyard and stable enough for a section.  Possibly a latrine may have been sighted at this area.  The ditch could also have been tested.

Finally another point which will hinder further excavation at this point is a fairly large high capacity water main.  This was recently pointed out to me by Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, it hindered any attempt to do any Geophysics in the area roughly adjacent to the north east ditch.  On this photo the area is just in front of the church boundary wall, it or the fort ditch (which is nonexistent visually here) can be seen as a slightly white line running beneath the two sheep on the rampart, this runs the entire length of the fort here, running right in a direction, west, toward Caerhun Hall, and left, east, toward the Conwy River.  Marked on old Ordnance Survey maps just left out of shot is a water tank, I always thought it was in a curious location, possibly it is connected with this water main.  Research into the date this water main was rudely deposited in the north ditch area has so far failed to establish this fact.  The water tank appears to be mentioned on the maps in the excavation report, the maps used cannot be any later than 1938 so the pipe must be earlier than that, it would be unlikely that permission for such a ground work would have been given later than the 1950’s.  The poor old fort certainly has had a lot of messing about with since the Roman withdrawal, and much in the last century.

This image was taken looking south, the wooded ridge on the east slope of the Conwy Valley looking little changed from images in the report, a classic view of Kanovium, the old church, its wall built largely of recycled Roman stone blocks, from both local and wider afield.  Today this is the site of the overflow church parking.