Finally I have been able to get to the site of Mediobogdvm. This is the best preserved site in Cumbria south of the Wall.The earliest fort is likely to have been Trajanic , and finished under Hadrian. The initial Hadrianic garrison was the 4th Cohort of Dalmatiae. The fort may well have been one of those abandoned during the reign of Antoninus Pius , as troops pushed northward into modern Scotland to secure a new frontier at the Antonine Wall.The fort was reoccupied circa 160 AD and appears to have been sacked or deliberately razed in 197. Its life was therefore quite limited in comparison to other sites I have illustrated .

As can be seen from the images of the Fort this is probably one outpost that ,despite its scenic glory, could without understatemant be described as "remote".

http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...&cmd=si&img=840

Its function appers to have been as a staging post on the tough march ,over very high ground , from Glannaventa ( Glannaventa) toward Borrans (Ambleside) and either thence to Alavanna (Watercrook) or northwards toward Luguvallum.

If the area was under reasonable "police" control the fort would hardly have had sway over anything but a scattered rural population , hence I suggest its short life .Fort layout is the usual playing card shape.

If you approach by foot it is a warm days work to walk up the valley from Dalegarth (terminal of the narrow guage railway from Ravenglass). As can be seen there was little need to dig defensive earthworks around the fort as two sides are precipitous , and its not easy to find any other flat land in the vicinity

http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...&cmd=si&img=843

http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...&cmd=si&img=842

The weather was very changeable and a cold, lashing rain descended , just as you would expect in mid-June in Britain.

For a bulk upload of more photos from this trip my msn blog will be updated soon.

http://triclinium.spaces.msn.com/

edit: now uploaded and annotation to follow soon.

Due to one of those unusual strokes of fortune that occur from time to time , I happened to arrive at the secondhand book dealers, who cheerfully announced that he had just taken delivery of an extensive array of Romanophile tomes.

I purchased amongst others PS Fry's "Roman Britain" (what you say thats three books with the same title now ? The answer is yes)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0715382...glance&n=266239

I am part way through this work which is part history and part gazetteer-still a useful addition despite having Salway and De La Bedoyere's titles of the same name.

The North West Frontier of Rome (a military study) D Divine .

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0356023...glance&n=266239

and most usefully Sheppard Frere's "Brittania".

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0712650...glance&n=266239

on top of that an armful of smaller books and maps, especially a 1956 OS "Roman Britain" in top notch condition.Yet more reading for the long , wet , dark summer nights.

Just to produce a tiny frisson of envy -I hope to report from my forthcoming hawk handling trip next week...