Whitaker gives, as the meaning of the word Procolitia, the ‘fortress in the woodlands.’ In the Gaelic tongue, coille signifies a wood.
There is little in this station to detain us. The course of its ramparts and moats can be easily traced, and the rich green sward of its area is seen to cover numerous irregular heaps of ruins; every building, however, is prostrate; scarcely one stone is left upon another. The Wall forms the northern boundary of the station; its eastern and western gateways are, as usual, opposite to each other, but strike the side walls between the upper end and the middle. The position of the southern gateway cannot be detected; in the present state of the ruins, there is no appearance of one. The southern corners are rounded off, but the side walls of the station, in joining the Murus on the north, seem to preserve their rectilinear course. Outside the western wall are the ruins of the suburbs. A natural valley, consisting at present of boggy ground, gives strength to the fortification on this side. Horsley saw a well in the slack, cased with Roman masonry; it is now removed.
No modern habitation is on the ground or in its immediate vicinity to relieve the general desolation—
... here, as in the wild,
The day is silent, dreary as the night;
None stirring save the herdsman and his herd,
... or they that would explore,
Discuss and learnedly.
CARRAWBURGH.
Passing onwards, we soon reach the farm-house of Carraw, formerly a rural retreat of the priors of Hexham. On the crown of the next elevation, the works are brought into close proximity, apparently for the purpose of avoiding an extensive bog on the north, and of maintaining possession of the point of the hill on the south. The earth-works are very boldly developed, but are in a ragged state. The contents of the north fosse are piled up high on its outer margin. The fosse of the Vallum is cut through free-stone rock; its southern agger is very elevated, and would present a bold and angry front to any intruder from the south.