Hotbank Farm, Northumberland. Archaeological Watching Brief.

The present heavily used path across Milecastle 38 of Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland (NY 7726 6812), forms part of the Pennine Way and the Hadrian’s Wall Path National Trail, and crosses both the east and west walls of the Milecastle.
This structure is part of the Scheduled Monument of Hadrian’s Wall and associated features between the field boundary west of Turret 37a and the road to Steel Rigg car
park, in Wall Miles 37, 38 and 39 (SM 26060), which forms part of the Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site. Visitor pressure has resulted in wear lines forming over both walls of the milecastle and, to some extent, through the interior. Neil Rimmington, then Project Officer for Proactive Earthwork Management at English Heritage, proposed to divert the Path from its current route to allow the worn path time to recover. This work involved the insertion of two new wicket gates into current field boundaries, laying three areas of flags, and the insertion of a pipe within a
drainage ditch, all within close proximity of the milecastle. The drainage ditch and one of the sections of flags lie across the Military Way, the agger of which is visible as an earthwork in this section of the Scheduled Monument. English Heritage therefore commissioned a watching brief during ground works, which was undertaken by Oxford Archaeology North in September 2003.