Aldborough Roman Site — Attraction in Boroughbridge

Well, we weren't expecting THAT! This was a truly wonderful experience. We were welcomed by a lady (whose name I know not) at the desk in the museum, and were immediately allocated a site guide called Alistair (hope we spelled that correctly!). Now Alistair is an English Heritage guide, and he is so clearly immersed in every detailed aspect of this intriguing location that our tour around the site became a joyful fact-finding experience. We spent well over two hours chatting, learning and sharing knowledge. At the end of the site tour we headed back into the museum, a compact and highly informative collection of roman finds, where we spoke further with Alistair and the lady whose name I still don't know. They are both a total credit to themselves and to EH for their depth of interest and understanding of this site and way beyond. Please go here, if you have anything about you, and meet some genuinely interesting and lovely people in the midst of essential and astonishing history. As an addendum, we strolled around the delightful village and stopped briefly at the Ship Inn, a friendly pub, opposite the roman forum. The imagination runs riot as you plot the intrigues which took place there between 70 and 400AD. First though, you have to persuade your mind to get past the 700 year old church which stands...

Great half hour loop round the english heritage site, and one lovely local has even opened their garden to the excavations and path which allows walking through, so please be respectful.

I'd give it 5 stars if the conservation rules and more of the locals would let more of the site be excavated. There's only 1/8 of the area actual structures exposed (and it's already impressive) which in a sense is good for conservation in all fairness, but with the correct protections in place it could be incredible! Theres still much more to find, but an interesting walk around nonetheless.

Just be careful parking on the high street near the site enterance. One of the locals left an angry note on my windshield which soured the experience and means sadly despite the site being fascinating, I likely won't be revisiting any time soon. No double yellows, wasn't blocking a drive or entrance, just typical busybody types spoiling it for...

It's worth visiting for me because it is local. There is not a lot of content at this site to justify travelling far, so you will want to plan other activities to make it worthwhile. This is all that remains of an important Romano British town, tribal centre of the Brigantes. A small area of ditch and rampart, 2 original mosaics of moderate interest and 2 Victorian "reconstructed" ones. There are a small number of household artefacts at the entrance. One of the mosaics is now housed at Leeds museum.

In my view this site could easily be improved/updated with some high quality photos, diagrams and explanatory text on information panels. Hopefully, also, Cambridge University's recent research will unearth more material and more information that can then be displayed about this important Roman town. I also wonder if the mosaics are due for a bit of cleaning maintenance - they look...