page_title: History of Workington
section_title: Roman times (AD 79–410)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Workington / Roman times (AD 79–410)
caption_attribution_description: English: Reproduction of a Roman Watchtower near Fortress 'Vechten', Utrecht, the Netherlands. Photographed in November 2005 by Niels Bosboom. Nederlands: Reproductie van een Romeinse Wachttoren bij Fort Vechten in Utrecht.
context_page_description: Workington was historically a part of Cumberland now Cumbria, an historic county in North West England; the area around Workington has long been a producer of coal, steel and high-grade iron ore.
context_section_description: Between 79 and 122, Roman forts, mile-forts and watchtowers were established down the Cumbrian coast. They acted as coastal defences against attacks by the Scoti in Ireland and by the Caledonii, the most powerful tribe in what we now call Scotland.  The 16th century book, Britannia, written by William Camden describes ruins of the coastal defences at Workington.
  The fort, now known as Burrows Walls, was established on the north bank of the mouth of the River Derwent, near present-day Siddick Pond and Northside. Another fort or watchtower would have been on How Michael to the south side of the river, near present-day Chapel Bank. In 122, the Romans begin building Hadrian's Wall from Bowness on the Solway Firth to Wallsend on the North Sea. The discovery of a Roman fort around the parish church in Moresby to the south, and fortifications to the north at Risehow (Flimby), Maryport and Crosscannonby support the argument that the coastal wall extended down the whole Solway coast and formed a key part of the empire's defences.
  For many years Burrow Walls was believed to be the fort Gabrosentum or Gabrocentio, found in The Notitia Dignitatum for Britain, which lists several military commands (the Dux Britanniarum, the Count of the Saxon Shore (Comes Litoris Saxonici per Britannias) and the Comes Britanniarum). The word Gabrocentum has its origins in the Welsh or Ancient British gafr meaning "he goat" and the word hynt (set in Old Irish) meaning "path". Today, many scholars believe it is more likely to be the fort known as Magis.
caption: Reconstruction of a Roman watchtower.
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