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You are here:  > Visitors > Things to do in Lincoln > Tours and walks > Self guided tours and walks

Roman Tour

A tour of the visible Roman remains in the city should take in the following sites, shown on the map. These mainly consist of the remains of the city defensive wall and gates, plus some other major buildings. The outline of the defences is shown for reference.

Click on the points of the map to learn more about each area of interest.

Full details of the points are shown below the map.

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The initial Roman occupation at Lincoln was a military fortress built on the top of the hill about AD60. It was constructed in timber by the 9^th legion Hispana and vacated in AD78 by the 2^nd legion Adiutrix, which succeeded the 9^th in AD 71. No visible remains of the fortress survive.

By AD96 the fortress site had been designated as one of only four known Roman coloniae in Britain, the highest honour bestowed on any provincial city.

The 2^nd and 3^rd centuries saw expansion of the colonia, and in the 4^th century Lincoln became administrative capital of one of the new provinces of Roman Britain. 

A tour of the visible Roman remains in the city should take in the following sites, numbered as on the map.  These mainly consist of the remains of the city defensive wall and gates, plus some other major buildings.

Distance: The total distance of this walk is 5.8 kilometres (3.6 miles), and 4.3 kilometres (2.7 miles) if sites 27-29 are omitted.

A good place to begin your tour is in front of the Lincoln Hotel in Eastgate.

Tour Part 1 (Red Markers)

Roman East Gate: the north tower and adjacent city wall of the Upper City in the forecourt of the Lincoln Hotel. The visible remains are the rebuilt gate dating from the 3^rd century AD.  Evidence was found here of the earlier timber Legionary gate. Interpretation panels give more information.

1. 150m (optional): wall to the rear of the Lincoln Hotel – (please ask at the hotel about access) - an impressive 30m-long stretch of the core of the rebuilt (4^th-century) city wall, surviving here to its highest point above its base (c2m below the modern ground level and over 4m high). Return to Eastgate and turn right.
    
2. 100m. From Eastgate, walk northwards along East Bight, past the red brick of the hotel’s meeting room, where an interval-tower and later thickened city wall were uncovered in 1971 (not visible).
    
3. 200m. Continue northwards and then westwards along East Bight until you reach a surviving fragment of the city wall.  This is part of the later rebuilding (in the 4th century), and has survived presumably because it stood adjacent to the water-tank (castellum aquae) which collected water from the aqueduct and distributed it to the nearby baths, only c.50m to the south, and elsewhere.  The outline of the tank is marked in the ground and there is an interpretation board.
    
4. To the west of the property boundary and beyond, but still in a rear garden of a house on Church Lane to the north, is part of the early city wall and an added 2nd-century interval-tower (not accessible to the public). Some impression can be gained of the width of the late Roman ditch.
    
5. 80m. At the end of East Bight, beyond a fragment of the late thickening of the city wall in the garden of Newport Cottage, is the Newport Arch, the inner face of the north gate in its 3rd-century form (with medieval additions and modifications to the north).  This is one of the surviving jewels of Roman Britain, as the only gate-arch still used by traffic. On the north side across Bailgate the lower, chamfered base of the front of the west gate-tower can be seen, and the blocked lower part of the western side-passage, which help to demonstrate the Roman ground-level and the extent to which the gate-arches have been filled.
    
6. 175m. Return back to Newport Arch and turn right into Chapel Lane – a diagonal post-Roman street ignoring the Roman grid but linking the Roman north and west gates – and turn left into the narrow passage known as West Bight.  Towards the southern end is the so-called Mint Wall, the north wall of the Roman town-hall (basilica), another rare survival for Roman Britain.  An interpretation panel explains the remains.
    
7. 100m. Continue along West Bight to Westgate and the site of St Paul-in-the-Bail.  Go immediately eastwards (left) to Bailgate, where you will note circular granite setts in the surface of the street (reset in February.2010 during the Bailgate Restored project).  These denote the positions of a row of 19 columns which formed the frontage of the forum. The most northerly columns still stand c.1m high in the cellar of 29 Bailgate (private, and not currently accessible).
    
8. 10m. Return to the site of St Paul-in-the-Bail. Towards the eastern end, fragments of some walls of the forum’s east range, and the head of a well (left) are exposed now capped in turf.  These were excavated in 1979, but have deteriorated from weathering, and ‘soft-capping’ has been laid to arrest the decay pending long-term proposals.
    
9. The main garden area surrounds the site of the long sequence of churches beginning possibly as early as the late 4th century AD.  The plan of the second church in the sequence is marked on the ground, and there is an interpretation panel at the west end.
    
10. 250m. From here head westwards along Westgate, on the north side of the Castle.  The original discovery of the defences of the Legionary fortress was made in the garden of Westgate Junior School in the 1940s.
     
11. 100m. At the end of Westgate, turn left into Union Road, and immediately south of The Victoria public house you will see the Norman west gate of Lincoln Castle.  It was in the castle bank north of the Norman gate that the Roman west gate was revealed in 1836. It is not now visible, and remains buried in the bank. Across the street within the grounds of the Lawn, cremations and traders’ houses have been found, similar to many others outside the city walls.
     
12. 500m. Carry on along Union Road, turn left and continue in that direction along Drury Lane until you reach the open square of Castle Hill, where you may wish to admire the view and visit other attractions.
     
13. 300m. One of these attractions is the Medieval Bishop’s Palace, accessible from the south side of Minster Yard (English Heritage; entrance charge).  The east wall of the site, to the east of the East Hall, has some masonry of the east city wall in its lower courses: those that follow the slope.  At the south-east corner of the site a fragment of the core of the Roman city wall is visible, actually within the grounds of the Usher Gallery.  It will have to be conserved in the near future. The garden of the Palace provides a good location to view the Witham Gap and the lower part of the city. (limited access for wheelchair users)

Tour Part 2 (Purple Markers)

1. 400m. Return to Castle Hill and turn left into the aptly-named Steep Hill. At number 44 on the left-hand side, you can enter the shop and see part of the south gate of the Roman Upper City. Part of the outer wall of the eastern carriageway and the spina of the gate were exposed in 2001 for the first time in almost 300 years. Their discovery confirmed that this gate had a double carriageway, with the western arch on the line of Steep Hill itself. Across the street you will see a section of the gate between numbers 25 and 26 (left).

   From this point, the rest of the visible remains are more widely spaced, and to venture down to the bottom of Steep Hill means also that you will have to find your way back up again.  Fortunately, there is the option of a return uphill-downhill bus link which leaves regularly from St Peter at Arches in Silver Street, just 60m from the Stonebow 

    Note: The gradient and cobbles of Steep Hill makes it extremely difficult for wheelchair users.
    

2. 200m. If you do wish to continue, go further down Steep Hill.  This is a medieval deviation from the paved Roman route of Ermine Street, which ascended the steepest part of the slope in a series of monumental steps and ramps.  Vehicles meanwhile took a circuitous route: a diagonal street surfaced in pebbles and with traces of wheel ruts was found adjacent to St Martin’s Street, and may underlie Well Lane.  Next to the 12th-century Jew’s House is Jews Court, the offices of the Society for Lincs History and Archaeology, which include a well-stocked bookshop on all aspects of the County’s history and archaeology.
    
3. 150m. Opposite here is Danes Terrace, at the end of which will be found The Collection and Usher Gallery (free entry). The Collection was opened in 2005 and many artefacts from the Roman period are on display as part of an exciting themed experience. In Temple Gardens, the grounds of the Usher Gallery, a section of the eastern defensive ditch can be seen. Looking south, you can easily imagine its former route running south on the line of the dual carriageway of the late medieval street of Broadgate.

Tour Part 3 (Green Markers)

1. 350m. Returning along Danes Terrace to the line of Steep Hill and The Strait, turn left down the High Street which here overlies Ermine Street.  On the east side immediately before the traffic lights is the Sakura night-club, in a basement which also contains the flue of a Roman underfloor (hypocaust) heating system thought to be part of public baths establishment.  It was one of the public monuments on the Ermine Street in the Lower City: a temple and public fountain lay to the south.
    
2. 275m. At the traffic lights turn right along Corporation Street and West Parade until you come to the line of a steep cobbled path called Motherby Hill, running up the hill just beyond the Police Station.  The path lies roughly on the line of the west wall of the Lower City, and a small fragment is displayed together with an adjacent interpretation panel.
    
3. 100m. Cross West Parade and go down the street called ‘The Park’ towards the large brutalist concrete building which houses the offices of the City of Lincoln Council.  On your right is an impressive stretch of city wall (4th century) and the bases of the towers of a contemporary gate in the western city wall.  The north tower incorporates some re-used decorated and moulded stones, now somewhat damaged by exposure and human agency.  Soft turf capping has been added to help to protect the structure.  The finest stone piece, a decorated cornice, has been re-located to the foyer of City Hall and has been replaced by a fibreglass replica.  There is an interpretation panel.
    
4. 400m. Continue southwards to Newland and then east along the pedestrianised Guildhall Street as far as the Stonebow on your left.  This lies just south of the Roman south gate of the Lower City, whose plan is not known.
    
5. 100m. Further to the east along Saltergate, the basement of the Royal Bank of Scotland contains a section of the south wall and a postern-gate which led to the riverside.  The basement is, however, only open on selected days (contact the Collection (01522 550990) for details- there are steps and no lift).
    
6. 100m. Further along Saltergate is the impressive Victorian church of St Swithins which currently houses, at its west end, a Roman altar to the fates set up by the Treasurer of a Roman burial club. The inscription is translated as "To the Fates, the Goddesses and the Divine Spirits of the Emperors, Gaius Antistius Frontinus, overseer for the third time, dedicated this altar at his own expense."
    
7. (optional) On Free School Lane is the Central Library, a good base for research, as its local studies collections are well-resourced.
    
8. (optional) 175m. Across Broadgate on St Rumbold Street can be found a similar haven, the Lincolnshire Archives Office (membership required, but no charge for joining).

Tour Part 4 (Blue Markers)

1. 300m. Returning to the Stonebow, proceed down the High Street over the 12th-century High Bridge which sits on the site of its Roman predecessor.  Allow for the fact that the Roman river was much wider - it almost lapped up against the city wall on the north side of Saltergate, before the waterfront was advanced southwards later in the Roman period.

   You may wish to end the tour here, as sites 27-29 involve a return trip of 1.5km

2. 200m. Just beyond the end of the pedestrian precinct, and adjacent to the railway crossing, is the church of St Mary-le-Wigford.  Its Saxo-Norman tower, added to an earlier, narrow nave, displays the founder’s dedication, re-using a Roman tombstone of a Gaul named Sacer. The inscription translates as "In the memory of the departed; to the name of Sacer, son of Bruscus, a Senonian citizen, and Carssouna his wife and Quintus his son".
    
3. 500m. A further trail down High Street brings you past Monson Street (where legionary tombstones were found in the 19^th century) to Sibthorp Street.  On its north side, the 12th-century St Mary’s Guildhall (headquarters of the Lincoln Civic Trust) was built over the eastern part of the Roman road, Fosse Way, part of which is exposed under a glass floor.  The base of the first Roman milestone south from the city, found during conservation works in the early 1980s, rests here. (The building is not normally open to the public).
    
4. 50m. High up in the tower of the nearby St Peter at Gowts church is a sculptured stone which, it has been suggested, depicts the Mithraic god Arimanius, re-used to represent Christ in majesty, possibly derived from a nearby Mithraic temple.

For wheelchair users and those with limited mobility

The basic route is on public streets which vary in their ease of use, but are generally accessible. Be aware that the pavements on Steep Hill are narrow, the road surface is mostly cobbled, and the gradient is extremely steep.

Further afield (Yellow Markers)

Nettleham Road; 2.5 kilometres from city centre. The final public Roman fragment to see in the city is part of the aqueduct pipe displayed in the foyer of the Waitrose supermarket towards the end of Nettleham Road. It was excavated nearby, to the north of the store towards the spring known as the Roaring Meg, which traditionally (but probably incorrectly) has been identified as its source.

The geographical situation of Lincoln in the Witham Gap is best appreciated from the higher part of South Common (across which ran the Ermine Street, the main Roman road from London), or on the north side from a number of vantage points in the Cathedral area – notably the garden of the Medieval Bishop’s Palace, or the Observatory Tower of Lincoln Castle. 

The text is an edited version taken from:

Roman Lincoln by Michael J Jones, published by Tempus Publishing in 2002. Guide Produced by Heritage Team, City of Lincoln Council.