Stainmore Pass road
Cataractonium to Brocavum
The route
The road ran west from Cataractonium at Catterick, the major road town on Dere Street, up Teesdale and over the Stainmore pass at about four hundred and fifty metres, then down into the Eden valley to Brocavum at Brougham, and on to Carlisle. Ravenglass on the Cumbrian coast was reached by a different road altogether, over Hardknott and the High Street ridge.
The fort at Lavatris at Bowes guarded the eastern approach to the summit, and the small fort at Maiden Castle watched the pass itself. This was the connecting line between the eastern and western halves of Roman northern Britain: without it, the Cumbrian forts would have been cut off behind the Pennines.
The surveyed line
The Itiner-e survey maps Roman roads across this part of the empire, but attributes no segment to Stainmore Pass road by name, so there is no measured line to draw here. The road is well attested by archaeology and by the modern roads that still follow it.
The road today
The A66 crosses Stainmore by essentially the same line, for the same reasons. It is one of the clearest cases in Britain of a modern trunk road existing because Roman surveyors identified the only sensible crossing of a mountain barrier.
See also: which modern roads follow Roman lines, and how closely.
Where to see it
The drive over Stainmore on the A66 is the experience. The Roman fort earthworks at Bowes are visible beside the road, with a Norman keep built inside them, and the Rey Cross monument stands near the summit close to the site of a large Roman marching camp.
In winter the A66 over Stainmore closes in high winds and snow. The Romans will have had the same problem.
Common questions
Is the A66 a Roman road?
Over Stainmore, essentially yes. The modern A66 crosses the pass on close to the Roman line, because the geography allows very little choice about where to cross.
Why was the Stainmore road important?
It was the lowest and most practical east-west crossing of the northern Pennines, though not the only one. It linked Dere Street and the eastern forts to Carlisle and the Eden valley, and without it Roman Cumbria would have been far harder to supply.