Sponsor a stone from the wall at Epiacum and get your name or a family members / friends or love one’s name or both link to it… and you never know it may be found by the Archaeologists on site during Operation Jericho
You will receive (on a spacial page on this site) a photo of your ancient stone and have your and/or your love ones / friends name included on our roll of honour.
Their name and a photograph of their stone will be posted on their own Epiacum page as well as included in our roll of honour. Also if your stone (chosen at Random) is discovered by the Archaeologists during Operation Jericho to have been part of the Roman fort, that will be noted on their page on the Epiacum site.
Sponsor your stone and as we will get your page and stone on the site over the next three weeks…
Click the button above, leave a donation and in the comments leave the name of the person you would like to dedicate the page to.
There are only 22 tickets left for this wonderful night out
Get your tickets now or there will be no dancing for you on the 1st September…
Time to celebrate!
Celebrate the kid’s going back to school
AND
Celebrate the start of two weeks of wall busting activity at Epiacum
Epiacum Heritage (a charity) is holding it’s first ever Ceilidh at Slaggyford Village Hall (Cairns Community Hall Slaggyford – map below) with local lass, Georgia Shorrock as caller and the awesome live Ceilidh band The Elgish Experience.
American Supper
This is an American Supper (Bring a plate of Savoury food and your own drink) and we will supply the band, the caller, the hall and the puddings (as well as sparkling good company).
TICKETS
Limited Tickets available …only 40Â 36Â 30Â 25Â Â 22 tickets left – get yours now…
Places are limited due to the need for space for wild abandoned dancing and to give a bit of room for people like me, with two left feet. Once the tickets are gone, that’s it, no more and then you will be sad and sat at home on your own whilst we are all having fun.
Time to let your hair down, meet old friends and some wonderful new ones as you whirl the evening away.
(We are holding the Ceilidh to raise funds for the charity – and just to have a jolly good time. No need to dress as a Roman for this event!).
Or you can send a cheque or bank transfer for the tickets, simply email Elaine Edgar at
Don’t delay as we really do have limited spaces on this fun evening.
Dance your little feet off at the Epiacum Ceilidh
Wondering what a Ceilidh is like?
Never been to a Ceilidh? Want to know more? See the video below and all will be explained (different band and caller). Its great fun and the caller leads you through the moves so you need to know diddly squat about dancing. Grab some friends and come along for a great evening out and a ton of laughs (beats sitting at home watching telly – you can record it :-)). Book now.
Would you like to meet some wonderful new people and have a great time (as well as a good laugh)?
Well have we got something awesome for you…
On Saturday 1st September 2018, Epiacum Heritage are holding a Ceilidh at Slaggyford Village Hall (posh name – Knarsdale with Kirkhaugh Cairns Community Hall).
Dance your little feet off at the Epiacum Ceilidh, have a laugh and do something fun…
Do you fancy working alongside archaeologists at one of Britain’s most unique sites? Epiacum is a totally unmatched, one-off archaeological and historical setting going back to mesolithic times, through iron age occupation, the Romans (obviously) into the Medieval and right up to modern times and everything in-between.
Help to dismantle the dry stone wall that cuts Epiacum Roman fort in half. The wall was put up around 1843 right across the middle of the fort and we are getting together a team of people under the supervision of archaeologist Al Oswald who has made this project possible by generously donating his time over the fortnight, along with others, to dismantle the wall, identify the Roman bits and remove the rest.
Built around 122 AD Epiacum is the only Roman Fort of its kind in the entire Roman Empire and you can be part of the next phase of it’s history.
Volunteers will learn about the history of the fort and the astonishing history of area that has everything from Bronze age mining and burials, Iron age villages, The Roman occupation, medieval farming and death, right through to you making history in September.
Jean Lunn is a great friend and supporter of Epiacum. As one of the team who took part in the only official excavation to have taken place within the fort itself in 1957-59, she has followed our progress with great interest and helped us greatly with her knowledge of those excavations and her continued support. Here she reports on her latest visit to the fort.
Jean on her perfect summer’s evening
What is an ‘Argo cat’? clues: it’s not feline, it’s definitely not soft and furry and to enjoy being in it you need a cushion or two – OK I’ll explain. It is an all-terrain small vehicle, and this week I was taken in one on to the top of the grassy knoll on which stands Epiacum Roman Fort near Alston (formerly known as Whitley Castle.)
Elaine Edgar of Epiacum Heritage very kindly offered me the chance to revisit the fort many years after I took part in the only official excavation on the site in 1957-9. Hence my need for help to reach the top. Until she suggested the trip I had given up all hope of ever seeing it again and I am extremely grateful to her and her son Ian, for giving me the opportunity to do so.
It was on a perfect summer’s evening – the views were wonderful but owing to the drought, the huge brown areas of pastures and fell had me worried – though on the fort they highlighted the tops of walls and stony areas of the remains.  We wandered slowly around – examined the small annexe to the headquarters building near which my brother David found a lump of lead ore many years ago – its presence a reminder of the reason that the fort was built in the first place – to guard the mineral deposits and the Maiden Way, the Roman road over the shoulder of Cross Fell which runs from Carvoran on the Roman wall to Kirby Thore, in the Vale of Eden.
We then set off towards the south east corner and through a gate onto the site of the corner tower. A sentry up there would have had a remarkably clear view of any enemy trying to approach the ramparts.  I imagined the cavalry barrack blocks to the north where men and horses shared the same living space and the infantry blocks to the south, the headquarters building and the commandant’s house – and the various sites of the bath houses.
Below the deeply incised trenches and ridges of the ramparts to the south was an area which archaeologists have now confirmed as the parade ground along with the podium from which the commanding officer took the salute, now a brown patch among the rushes. Imagine all the infantrymen and cavalrymen lined up with their weapons, trumpets and flags flying – the horses restless and their riders trying hard to keep them in order. What a spectacular sight!
Then of course, close by there were the small dwellings of the civilians and possibly the soldiers’ families and all those drawn to the safety of being near the fort, with their small patches of gardens and many small lanes running between and linking them – all revealed by the use of Lidar and other surveying techniques in recent times.  I expect there were traders and small workshops and food stalls and all the usual buildings required to meet their needs. It would be a busy place and all suitable parts around the base of the ramparts would be used.
Jean and Ian check out the problematic field wall
There is now a plan afoot to remove the drystone walls, built in the 1800s at the time of the enclosures, which run across the fort and which are a hindrance to both the archaeologists and public alike – I am happy to be supporting this effort which will be quite a costly undertaking as each stone has to be examined by an archaeologist and moved by hand with care and transported off the fort in wheel barrows. But who knows how many Roman stones will be found? What a treasure. Following in the BBC tradition, time to do the job will be strictly limited to a fortnight in September coming. Could you contribute? Every little helps.
On my return to the farm Ian pointed out the likely site of the fort’s Temple to Mithras (the special god of the military) which reminded me that Noel Shaw, who led the excavation in the 1950s, found the Mithras Temple at Carrawburgh near the Roman Wall after a particularly dry summer when the parched turf drew back over the tops of its three altars. I wonder if Epiacum will yield any of its secrets in 2018?  – I do hope so.
I continue to marvel at the advanced technology that the Romans brought to our isolated upland area and grieve a little at the terrible waste of talent when they left.
