The North East Angle Of Kanovium Fort

© Kanovium Project

This image was taken standing in the north east angle of the auxiliary fort, an area which is now completely covered by St Mary’s Church, and graveyard.  No excavation could be undertaken here, and Baillie Reynolds had to scrape away at very limited remains of building ends beneath the boundary wall in the field south of the graveyard to discover that this area contained 3 barrack blocks, II, V, VII, and workshop X, presumably a corner tower would have stood far left of image, and would have had a commanding view of the River Conwy.  Flowing north here, the Conwy was and still is tidal up to this point, the narrowest area of river could be the point of the Roman crossing, the river is still seen to feature a high point of bed here.  The crossing surely must have been in the view from the rampart?  Modern opinion is split to whether the crossing was in view here, or around the bend in the river at Taly Cafn, now the site of a modern bridge, once the medieval ferry point.  While medieval crossings often follow Roman lines, surely this would be too far away from the vision of the fort?  It would require a fortlet to guard Tal y Cafn crossing, and while a Norman Motte and Bailey stands at a very strategic point overlooking the ferry point, nothing is known to show that the Roman army also had a small fort here.  A fortlet would be essential, Kanovium would be out of touch, and it would seem contact by signaling, would be unavailable because the land between the fort and the ferry, the area of a small spur which now is the site of Coed y Arw plantation, renders vision between the two points impossible.

So possibly here we see the crossing point, which is arguably the catalyst for the founding of the fort back in the late 70’s A.D.  Certainly to view the fort from the modern A470 road when driving north, it looks very commanding indeed, in the Kanovium Project’s opinion, while certainly keeping their eye on east-west movements of people, the garrison was also employed to keep apace with movements down the Conwy Valley, an additional crossing point to the ferry site also being had here at low tide.

Today this area is most often used by Birdwatchers, the good view of the marsh presented from Kanovium’s rampart has ensured it is always listed in material on British Birdwatching, and often the interest does not run as far as studying history people scrabbling about in the marsh (scaring away all the birds) while seeking Roman pot sherds.  Eitherway, this is a special place and everyone should be free to enjoy the peace of the River Conwy here.  People have visited this area for centuries, from the Mesolithic hunter who dropped his arrowhead 8000 years ago, to the dog walkers, farmers, bird buffs, and modern day Romanites, we all represent continuing use of the Kanovium area.

Enjoy your visit, and please take a moment to consider all that has happened here in the past, what we are dealing with here is the lives of people, not humps and bumps in the pasture land.

© Kanovium Project