III Caerleon (Isca Augusta)

What3words – sample.reef.poker

Visited May 1995

Status – Top Grade

That school trip to Italy didn’t at that point inspire a lifelong obsession with amphitheatres, and it was more than twenty years until I next visited one, stumbling upon it while seeking amusement in south Wales in 1995.

Caerleon is the site of the legionary fortress Isca Augusta which accommodated the second Roman legion. The amphitheatre was built around 90 AD outside the fortified walls that date from about 74 CE.  The surviving structure is one of the most spectacular in Britain. Eight banks of seating with stone inner and outer walls surround the oval floor, now covered by neatly mown green grass, more suited to a kick around than a losing battle with a selection of imported wild beasts. In its heyday it could seat up to six thousand – the entire legion and a few hundred guests if necessary.

In what used to be called the ‘dark ages’ (The bit between the decline of the Roman Empire and the renaissance) one ‘Geoffrey of Monmouth’ rather fancifully wrote a ‘history’ suggesting this (almost) circular relic, which appeared to be nothing more than a grassy bank, was where the legendary King Arthur was crowned and kept his round table, and that Caerleon was therefore the site of Camelot. Good for the tourist trade, and many years later for attracting funding from the ‘Loyal Knights of the Round Table of America’ for an archaeological dig in the 1920s, but complete rubbish of course.

It was first investigated in 1909 by the splendidly named ‘Liverpool Committee for Research in Wales and the Marches’, whose initial excavations revealed the outer stone walls of  2-3m thickness. They tapped up the Yankees of King Arthur’s court and did a full excavation in 1926 revealing the substantial structure as it can be seen today. It’s lovely, go and see it.