Ermine Street

Londinium to Eboracum

Ermine Street ran north from Londinium to Eboracum at York, the spine of Roman Britain. From Bishopsgate it cut up through Hertfordshire, crossed the Great Ouse at Durovigutum at modern Godmanchester then drove straight on into Lindum at Lincoln. North of the Humber it picked up the road to York, the legionary fortress that became the capital of Britannia Inferior after the province was divided in the third century. The Old North Road of the Saxon period followed almost the same line, as does much of today's A1. Crossing the Humber required a ferry; the bridge would not come for another nineteen centuries.

The route

Ermine Street left Londinium at Bishopsgate and ran north through Hertfordshire, passing the small town at Braughing. It continued to Durovigutum at Godmanchester, crossed the Great Ouse, then ran on to Durobrivae at Water Newton near Peterborough, a pottery town whose kilns supplied much of the province.

North of there it drove up through Lincolnshire past Ancaster to Lindum at Lincoln, where the legionary fortress became a colony for retired soldiers. From Lincoln it continued dead north to the Humber at Winteringham. There was no bridge: traffic crossed by ferry to Petuaria at Brough, then took the road on to Eboracum at York.

The surveyed line

Mapped length: 420 km
Mapped segments: 68
Line certainty: Conjectured

Measured across every Itiner-e segment attributed to this road. A conjectured stretch is one whose course is inferred from evidence either side of it; that covers 99% of the mapped length here. This describes how precisely the line is known, not whether the road existed.

The road today

The A10 north out of London runs close to the southern end. The A1198 between Royston and Godmanchester still carries the name Ermine Street on its signs. North of Lincoln the A15 runs along the Roman line for more than twenty kilometres without a meaningful bend, one of the straightest stretches of road in Britain.

The A1 is often described as following Ermine Street, and along parts of its length it does, but the Great North Road and the Roman road diverge repeatedly. The A1 is the descendant of the medieval route, which itself borrowed Roman engineering where it suited.

See also: which modern roads follow Roman lines, and how closely.

Where to see it

Lincoln is the obvious destination. The Newport Arch, at the north end of Bailgate in the upper city, is the only Roman gateway in Britain still standing over a road carrying traffic, and the traffic below it is on the line of Ermine Street.

For the road as a road, drive or cycle the A15 north from Lincoln toward the Humber. The horizon-to-horizon straightness across the flat Lincolnshire farmland gives a clearer sense of Roman surveying than any excavated site.

Common questions

Is the A1 a Roman road?

Only in places. The A1 descends from the medieval Great North Road, which followed Ermine Street along some stretches and left it along others. The A15 north of Lincoln is a much truer survival of the Roman line.

Why is it called Ermine Street?

From Old English Earninga stræt, the road of the Earningas, a people settled around Arrington in Cambridgeshire. As with Watling Street the name belongs to the Anglo-Saxons who used the road, not to the Romans who built it.

How did Ermine Street cross the Humber?

By ferry. The Roman road ran to the south bank at Winteringham and resumed on the north bank at Petuaria at Brough. No bridge crossed the Humber until 1981.

Counties it crosses

Am I on it?