Station Hotel, Gilsland, Northumberland. Archaeological Evaluation Report

In March 1999, an archaeological field evaluation took place on the site of the former auction mart
in Gilsland, Northumberland (NY 6362 6626). The auction mart had occupied a position
immediately north of Hadrian's Wall, the south-western corner of the mart actually cutting into the
ditch to the north of the wall. In response to a planning application for a residential development
on the site, Northumberland County Council required that an archaeological evaluation be
undertaken to investigate the survival of archaeological remains within the study area. The
southern part of the study area, containing the predicted extent of the ditch and counter-scarp bank
is protected as a scheduled ancient monument (SAM 26071).
A preliminary site inspection and geophysical survey were undertaken prior to the evaluation. The
site inspection demonstrated that the Wall ditch and associated counterscarp bank survived in
good condition just on either side of the study area, but within the study area there was no obvious
ditch; this suggested that the ditch had been filled and the counterscarp bank truncated. There
was, however, a residual fragment of the counterscarp bank apparently surviving at the western
edge of the road. The remainder of the field was occupied by a series of metalled strips
corresponding to the pens of the cattle market