Burgh Roman Castle

The castle at Burgh was built as a Roman Saxon Shore Fort with direct access to the river and responsible for protecting the coastline. From 200AD the rich Roman province of Britain was tempting prey for Germanic raiders from the continent and the castle at Burgh was a fortified base for mobile defenders to protect the coast.

Visiting Burgh Roman Castle

The castle is situated a few miles west of Great Yarmouth, on the Norfolk coast. The castle is open 24/7 and there is no access charge, other than the car park cost (£1.50 I think). We found the car park and then followed the path but it seemed to be pretty much pot luck if we got to the castle or not as it was only signposted on about every third junction. As the area was flat and the walls relatively low it didn’t really stand out from a distance either.

My Experience

The area is a nature reserve so it was lovely to walk the paths anyway, chatting to some of the dog walkers and eventually we came to the fort. Built in the third century the castle was a base for mobile troops to intercept Germanic raiders rather than a fortification in the medieval sense. The walls were still standing on three sides, up to a height of maybe 4m and were impressively made with flint layers interspersed with terracotta. There were round towers on each corner and either side of the gateway and plenty of information boards.

It was another place I wish I had a drone though as it was far better appreciated by aerial photography. We carried on from the castle to the Church of St Peter and St Paul, an interesting 10th century church with a round tower. Unfortunately it was closed so we couldn’t see the exhibition inside as I’d like to have known the origins of the tower.

Burgh Roman Castle Photo Gallery

History

The Roman sites at Burgh and at nearby Caister-on-Sea were part of a string of forts along what is known today as the Saxon Shore, extending between the Solent and the Wash. These ‘Saxon Shore forts’ are thought to have acted as a defensive system against seaborne raiders, as naval bases and as defended trading centres. Extensive cropmarks at Burgh Castle do indicate an extensive vicus (civilian settlement) outside the fort walls.

According to a late Roman document, the Notitia Dignitatum, listing all military and civil service commands in the Roman empire, these forts were under the authority of ‘the Count of the Saxon Shore’. It also tells us that Burgh’s garrison was the Stablesian cavalry unit. While this information may be correct, the date of compilation of that part of the Notitia covering the western empire in the later 4th or earlier 5th centuries is uncertain, so when and for how long these details applied is not known.

In the 4th century AD Burgh and Caister controlled the entrance to the Waveney estuary, which is characterised by extensive marshes. They probably operated together and one, or both, were known by the Romans as Gariannonum.

For more than half a century the Saxon raids were checked fairly successfully and it was not until AD 367, when the Saxons, Picts and Scots made a concerted attack on Britain, that the forts began to be overrun and the count was killed.

Bede records that in about AD 630 Sigeberht, King of the East Angles, gave land inside a Roman fortress to St Fursa to found a monastery. The site, which was called Cnobheresburh, may have been Burgh – there is evidence for Saxon occupation and a cemetery inside the fort at this time. Caister is also a likely candidate, however. It too was the site of Saxon activity from the 7th century, and there was a large Saxon cemetery to the south of the fort.

It is worth visiting both sites to get a good impression of these Roman forts – Burgh for its still imposing defences and striking location, and Caister for the evidence of its internal streets and buildings.

References

Norfolk Heritage has a guide to the history of the castle and wider area here.

There is a comprehensive guide to the castle including maps showing the Roman era shoreline on the Norfolk Archeology Trust site here.

The English Heritage site has an excellent entry on the castle here and the history above is copied from there.