The accompanying lithograph is taken from the western side of the station. It well represents the chilly and somewhat forbidding aspect of this now nearly deserted place.
H. Burdon Richardson, Delt.John Storey, Lith.
BIRDOSWALD, WESTERN RAMPART.
Printed by W. Monkhouse, York.
Westward of Birdoswald, the Wall is in an unusually good state of preservation. Taking into account, not only the height, but the length of the fragment, and the completeness of the facing-stones on both sides, it may be pronounced the finest specimen of the great structure that now remains. Some portions of it, however, are beginning to exhibit evident signs of decrepitude and decay.
Within a short mile of the station, the remains of a castellum appear. Here the Vallum exhibits the unusual feature of a second ditch, as is represented in the subjoined section.[[125]] Hodgson says—
Through a bog, about a mile west of Amboglanna, the Vallum has had two ditches, probably intended for draining the military road that ran between them. They are still very distinct.
A careful examination of the spot induces me to think, that the additional fortification was intended to give increased security to a defile, which, running from the vicinity of the Wall to the bed of the Irthing below, renders the works in this part more than usually liable to attack from the south.
THE WORKS AT WALLBOURS.
At the western extremity of this extra ditch, the Wall and Vallum come into close proximity; the space between them was, with the exception of room for the military way, occupied by the foundations of a castellum. The place bears the name of Wallbours.