Huntcliff: A Roman Lookout Lost to the Sea

It’s been a lovely day at the seaside, but I my eyes were drawn to Huntcliff Nab, the huge beetling cliff that towers over Saltburn. It’s made of soft shales and is slowly being worn away by the sea and wind.

I imagined what the headland would have looked like almost two millenia ago, when the Romans built a lookout station on top of it. How much has disappeared since then? In the early 1900s, archaeologists dug up part of the station, but then only one-third of it was left; the rest had fallen into the sea. By 1979, the remaining parts had also eroded away, showing how powerful coastal erosion can be. I read that since the time of St. Hild, the cliffs at Whitby Abbey have receded by about a third of a mile, where another Roman lookout is thought to have stood and disappeared.

The 4th century was a troubled time for the Romans in Britain, with incursions by the Scotti, Picts, and Saxons. To defend against these threats from the North Sea, they built small forts or lookout stations along the coast. One of these was on Huntcliff, with known others at Goldsborough and Ravenscar.

When archaeologists excavated Huntcliff in the early 20th century, they found that the base would have been about 45 feet square. The tower had to be tall enough to see between stations, so it  probably stood at least 100 feet high. However, even at this height you still can’t see directly between Huntcliff and Goldsborough, or between Goldsborough and Ravenscar. If the stations worked together as a network, two might be missing, likely located at Boulby and Whitby.

It’s uncertain how such a system would have worked. If the purpose was to send messages to the Roman high command, there should be relay stations between the coast and main bases like Malton and York, but none have been found. It’s possible the towers worked with the Roman fleet, signaling the approach of enemy ships that couldn’t be seen from sea level.

Another idea is that the towers were meant to warn of enemy landings at certain places. If the invaders used clinker-built boats with high prows and sterns that were good for landing on flat beaches, like here at Saltburn, then these towers would have been very useful.