| Summary : The cropmarks of a small camp have been recorded 370 m ENE of the fort at Brougham (Brocavum), close to the confluence of the rivers Eamont and Lowther, a position of great strategic importance where several natural routes meet. The camp, at about 120 m above OD, occupies the broad summit of a low WNW to ESE ridge, which slopes gently towards a steep escarpment bordering the River Eamont. The erosion of this scarp may have destroyed any NW side of the camp, but there is the barest hint of a turn in the SW ditch, suggesting the position of a W corner; the camp was thus about 73 m square, and just over 0.5 ha (1.3 acres) may have been enclosed. The surviving corners seem to be of unusually large radius and the only certain entrance, positioned in the centre of the SE side, is protected by a relatively long traverse, set barely 5 m outside the ditch. The suggestion, on some aerial photographs, of a gap in the SW side is not substantiated by other photographs and seems to be the result of geological factors. The camp was clearly positioned so that its rear rampart was on the crest overlooking the river. Although it seems to have faced SE, a local rise in the ridge meant that there would have been dead ground only 80 m to the ESE. The site chosen would have had extensive views over the site of the fort at Brougham and along the Eamont Valley. Cropmarks adjacent to the camp include some small ditched enclosures perhaps field or burial plots associated with the Roman cemetery. See NY 52 NW 84. |
More information : (Centred NY 543291). At Brougham, air photography has revealed small rectangular ditched enclosures which cover a hillock to the north-east of the fort and seem to indicate a field system. South of the Eamont and only 1300 feet from the main site is a rectangular ditched enclosure about 200 feet by at least 120 feet with rounded angles, which almost certainly suggests a fortlet. Its position, (NY 5422 2919) on an old river scarp suggests its function was to watch two long stretches of the Eamont and to pass signals along the road, a purpose for which the main fort was not so well placed. The narrow ditch and the occurrence of a tutulus at one of the gates suggests temporary rather than permanent work. (1)
All the sites fall in a pasture field, where there are now no surface indications of the enclosures. (2)
Brougham is a temporary Roman camp. (3)
This camp has been re-assessed in connection with RCHME's survey and publication of Roman Camps in England. The following descriptive account is taken from the published text.
The cropmarks of a small camp have been recorded 370 m ENE of the fort at Brougham (Brocavum), close to the confluence of the rivers Eamont and Lowther, a position of great strategic importance where several natural routes meet (CUCAP CAL 11-13) (4a).
The camp, at about 120 m above OD, occupies the broad summit of a low WNW to ESE ridge, which slopes gently towards a steep escarpment bordering the River Eamont. The erosion of this scarp may have destroyed any NW side of the camp, but there is the barest hint of a turn in the SW ditch, suggesting the position of a W corner; the camp was thus about 73 m square, and just over 0.5 ha (1.3 acres) may have been enclosed. The surviving corners seem to be of unusually large radius and the only certain entrance, positioned in the centre of the SE side, is protected by a relatively long traverse, set barely 5 m outside the ditch. The suggestion, on some aerial photographs, of a gap in the SW side is not substantiated by other photographs and seems to be the result of geological factors.
The camp was clearly positioned so that its rear rampart was on the crest overlooking the river. Although it seems to have faced SE, a local rise in the ridge meant that there would have been dead ground only 80 m to the ESE. The site chosen would have had extensive views over the site of the fort at Brougham and along the Eamont Valley.
Cropmarks adjacent to the camp include some small ditched enclosures perhaps field or burial plots associated with the Roman cemetery. See NY 52 NW 84. Full information is included in the NMR Archive. (4) |