Dr. Francis McIntosh

So whether or not that was navigable, I mean, in the summer now, no way is it navigable.

But in the winter, it's high, you know, and if you can get canoes along, why could you not get shallow drafted, you know, barges in?

Because it's smoother sailing than going along a road.

So we do need to think about all these things and also think about how the river courses might have changed at Bird Oswald, the river there.

You know, we know that's changing, but how far was that navigable and how did that help with supplies at the fort?

Possibilities are endless.

So it depends if you've got a pass to leave the fort.

We don't know whether you had to have a pass to leave the fort, you know, but that's one suggestion.

If you couldn't, if you stayed in the fort, there's gaming boards found all over forts.

Yeah, you know, and dice and counter.

And knuckle bones, and they genuinely were actual knuckle bones, you know, they're not little toy pieces that we make today.

Gambling is, you know, quite a big thing.

They're found really interesting.

Lindsay Ellison-Jones did a study of what's found in mile castles.

And there's a lot of gaming boards in mile castles, because imagine you're quite bored when you're on sentry duty there.

If you're allowed out of the fort, you're in the civilian settlement or the extramural settlement or whatever, you know, you want to call it there where there'd be taverns, you know, with all the things that they might offer there, which is probably more gambling, you know, food, alcohol, maybe ladies.

Yeah.

Maybe boys, depending on what you want.

And then there'd be other things.

There'd be shops.