Roman Wall, Northumberland and Cumberland; was built in the 2d century, and extended 73½ miles from Wallsend on the Tyne, near Newcastle, to Bowness on the Solway Firth; was a great military work, consisting of stone wall with ditch on its N. side, turf wall or vallum to the S. of the stone wall, and stations, castles, watch-towers, and roads between the two walls.

(John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887))