Bath city walls

Bath’s city walls once enclosed the 9.3-hectare heart of the city, built first by the Romans around their settlement of Aquae Sulis in the 3rd century. The Anglo-Saxons reused the Roman ruins to fortify their burh of Acemannesceastre in the 10th century, turning Bath into a key power centre in Wessex. By the 12th century, during the Anarchy, King Stephen ordered the walls raised higher to strengthen their defences. Four decorated gates stood at the cardinal points, each linked to a church: St Mary’s to the north and St James’s to the south. Statues of King Bladud and Edward III once adorned these gates before they were removed in the 18th century. Only fragments remain today, but they mark a continuous circuit once walked by Roman legionaries and medieval guards. One surviving stretch runs beside Upper Borough Walls near Trim Street, saved by a burial ground that shielded it from demolition. Another section stands behind Manvers Hall on Old Orchard Street, rebuilt after the Second World War to half its former height. The East Gate near Pulteney Bridge is the only complete medieval gate left, restored in the 1890s and now Grade II* listed. The line of the walls can still be followed along modern streets such as Sawclose and Westgate Buildings. Archaeologists have uncovered buried sections beneath Burton Street and near the Theatre Royal, including a Saxon timber barricade and a sword from the early 11th century. Ordnance Survey maps mark the full route, which passes under buildings like the Guildhall Market and the Empire. Walking this invisible circle links Roman baths, medieval abbeys and Georgian terraces in a single, quiet promenade through Bath’s layered past.