Whitley Castle Whitley Castle is a large and uniquely shaped Roman fort ( Castra ) near Alston , Cumbria , England which the Romans called " Epiacum " . Whereas Roman forts are normally " playing card shaped " ( rectangular with rounded corners ) Whitley Castle is lozenge - shaped to fit the available site . In addition , it has the most complex defensive earthworks of any known Roman fort , with multiple banks and ditches outside the usual stone ramparts . The fort may have been sited to control and protect lead mining in the area as well as to support the border defences of Hadrian ' s Wall . Situation . Whitley Castle is situated about 1 , 000 feet ( 300 metres ) above sea level in the Pennine hills on the border of Cumbria and Northumberland . It lies to the west of the modern A689 road beside the Pennine Way long - distance footpath . It is one of the most isolated Roman sites in Britain , which may help to explain both why it remains largely unexcavated ( in 2012 ) , and why so much of it has survived . The site is a lozenge - shaped spur of high ground on Castle Nook hill farm under permanent pasture . The remains lie under the grass , and are most clearly seen in aerial photographs . The Roman fort itself covers about 4 acres ; outside it is a system of concentric defensive ditches . Whitley Castle is about 15 miles ( 24 kilometres ) south of Hadrian ' s Wall , and 20 miles ( 32 kilometres ) north of the main Roman road which ran between Carlisle ( to the northwest ) and York ( to the southeast ) . The fort may have been sited to exert control over the area near Alston and its lead mines , as well as to provide support for Hadrian ' s Wall . Roman fort . Epiacum was built early in the 2nd century AD . It was at least partly demolished and rebuilt around 200 AD . The fort was modified or wholly rebuilt about 300 AD . It appears to have been preceded by an Iron Age fort , followed by a Roman camp before the permanent fort was constructed . In the 3rd century the fort was manned by the 2nd Cohort of Nervians , auxiliary soldiers from the lower Rhine . Inscriptions on some of the altars found at Epiacum provide evidence of the Roman army units garrisoning the fort . The first , " DEO HERCVLI C VITELLIVS ATTICIANVS > LEG VI V P F " ( " To the god Hercules , Gaius Vitellius Atticanus , Centurion of the Legio VI Victrix , Loyal and Faithful , ( erected this ) . " ) names a regular army legion , which was based at York and would not have permanently manned a fort . Most likely Atticanus was seconded to Epiacum to train the fort ' s auxiliary soldiers . The second , " DEO APOLLINI G . . . IVS . . . . . . COH II NER . . . " ( " To the god Apollo , Gaius Julius Marcius , [ commander ] of the Second Cohort of Nervians , [ fulfilled his vow ] . " ) , names an auxiliary cohort that manned the fort early in the 3rd century ; it and two other inscriptions also naming the 2nd Nervians date to 213 - 221 AD . Epiacum is in some ways a typical Roman fort : inside the wall are straight roads which cross , a headquarters building " Praetorium " , the commandant ' s house , a set of barrack blocks for the cohort of auxiliary soldiers , and granaries to store food . Also as usual , there is a bath house and a temple ( dedicated by the auxiliary soldiers to the Emperor Caracalla ) outside the wall . There is an altar dedicated by the 6th Legion to Hercules , and an altar to Mithras . But Epiacum has two unique features . Firstly , the fort ' s military engineers modified the usual rectangular plan to suit the available site : it is distorted into a lozenge or parallelogram ; the internal features of the fort are similarly distorted . Secondly , the wall is surrounded by four steep defensive ditches and banks around the hill spur , and seven such ramparts across the uphill side of the spur . Archaeology . The fort was surveyed and described by R . G . Collingwood in his " Archaeology of Roman Britain " , 1930 . A survey in 2009 showed a Roman civilian settlement or " vicus " to the north and west of the fort . Artefacts found include coins , pottery , glass and objects made of jet , as well as stone altars ( dedicated to Hercules , Apollo , Minerva and the emperor Septimius Severus ) and inscribed stones . In 2012 , the University of Durham carried out a geophysics survey as part of an English Heritage project . In the absence of a full excavation , archaeologists have exploited the diggings of moles to uncover Roman artefacts by sifting earth thrown up by the animals in their molehills . Finds include fragments of Terra sigillata ( " Samian ware " , Roman table pottery ) ; rim fragments of serving bowls and earthenware pots ; a bead made of jet ; some iron nails ; and a tap head made of bronze , shaped like a dolphin . Name . The Roman name for the fort , " Epiacum " , is given in Ptolemy ' s " Geography " as the first town in the area of the Brigantes tribe of northeastern England . The name may contain a form of " " acumen " " , meaning " the point " , which could describe the lozenge - shaped spur on which the fort lies .