Stone Street
Durovernum Cantiacorum to Portus Lemanis
The route
Stone Street ran almost due south from Durovernum Cantiacorum at Canterbury, the chief town of the Cantii, to Portus Lemanis at Lympne on the Kent coast.
Lympne was one of the forts of the Saxon Shore, the chain of coastal strongholds built in the third century to watch the Channel, and it was also a harbour. The road existed to move goods and troops between the inland capital and the sea, and it does so with almost no concession to terrain, holding a single alignment across the chalk of the North Downs for about twenty kilometres.
The surveyed line
The Itiner-e survey maps Roman roads across this part of the empire, but attributes no segment to Stone Street 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 B2068 follows it almost exactly for its full length, and is still called Stone Street on the signs. It is one of the most faithful modern survivals of a Roman alignment anywhere in Britain.
See also: which modern roads follow Roman lines, and how closely.
Where to see it
Drive or cycle the B2068 south from Canterbury. The road runs straight to the horizon over the downs with barely a bend, and from the higher ground you can see several kilometres of it laid out ahead.
At the southern end, Stutfall Castle below Lympne preserves the tumbled walls of the Saxon Shore fort, slumped down the hillside by centuries of landslip.
Common questions
Is the B2068 a Roman road?
Yes, and unusually faithfully. The B2068 between Canterbury and Lympne follows Stone Street along almost its entire length, still carrying the Roman name.
Why is Stone Street so straight?
It crosses open chalk downland with no significant obstacles, and its job was to link Canterbury to the coast as directly as possible. Roman surveyors aligned roads between fixed sighting points, and over this ground there was nothing to force a deviation.