Galava
GALAVA in Britain, mentioned in the 10th Itinerary, which runs--
Iter a Clanoventa Mediolano M. P. cl. (sic). GalavaM. P. xviii.AloneM. P. xii.GalacumM. P. xviii.BremetonaciM. P. xxvii.CoccioM. P. xx.MancunioM. P. xvii.CondateM. P. xviii.MediolanoM. P. xviii.
For the elements of uncertainty in this Itinerary see CLANOVENTUM. In the Monuments Historica Britannica Galacum==Appleby, Whallop Castle, or Kendal, and Galava==either Old Town or Great Keswick.
[R.G.L]At the head of Lake Windermere, which may have been used for transporting supplies from the S, on roads from Alone (Watercrook) and Brocavum (Brougham) to the W coast at Glannoventa (Ravenglass). A road N possibly existed. The first fort was an irregular foursided area defended by two ditches with a palisade between them and a clay rampart. Nothing is known of the internal buildings. Its date may be Trajanic. It probably proved too wet for permanent occupation so a clay and gravel platform was constructed over part of it, on which a new fort was built, defended by a stone wall backed with an earth rampart. Double ditches were traced on its N and E sides, apparently without a causeway at the gates. Of the four gates only the Porta Praetoria is double. At each angle is an internal tower.
The principia was carelessly laid out, with the entrance to the courtyard off-center; two L-shaped weapon-stores flank it. The cross-hall, roofed with local slate, has a rostrum in its NW corner, and the back range comprises three rooms with a sunken strongroom in the center room. The granary N of the principia is a square, buttressed building with vent holes in the N and S walls only, divided into three sections. In the N and S sections low walls were built to carry the suspended floor. In the center the three incomplete walls, at right angles to those of the other section, are too widely spaced to take a floor. In the E section charred wheat was found, lying on oak boards thought to be the remains of a bin. The praetorium S of the principia is a courtyard building only partially excavated. Little is known of the timber barrack blocks except that those examined had at one time been destroyed by fire. This fort is probably Hadrianic, and was occupied to the end of the 4th c. Part of the civil settlement NE of the fort has been discovered, on low-lying wet ground. One tombstone records the deaths of a retired centurion and of a record clerk, killed in the fort by the enemy.
BIBLIOGRAPHYR. G. Collingwood, “Report on the exploration of the Roman fort at Ambleside,” Trans. Cumberland and Westmorland Arch. Soc. ser. 2, 14 (1914) 433-65; 15 (1915) 1-62; 16 (1916) 57-90; M. E. Burkett, “Recent Discoveries at Ambleside,” ibid. 65 (1965) 86-101.
D. CHARLESWORTH