Rudchester Mithraeum

Rudchester Mithraeum stands beside the remains of a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall, about 137 metres west of the old castra. The shrine was dedicated to Mithras, a god popular with Roman soldiers in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Two successive stone temples once occupied the spot, the first built late in the 2nd century and rebuilt after collapse. Excavations in 1844 uncovered a broken statue and five altars, while J. P. Gillam re-located the shrine in 1953. The altars name officers of the Sixth Legion and local prefects who honoured the god. The temple’s layout followed the usual pattern: a long nave with low benches on each side and a small apse at the west end. An ante-room was added later but soon collapsed because it was built over an old pit. When the shrine was rebuilt, the ante-room was omitted and the benches were extended inward. A stone podium held the bull-slaying group, and wooden posts supported a new roof. Finds include heads of the torch-bearers Cautes and Cautopates, and a water-basin along the north bench. Today the site is marked on the ground but nothing of the mithraeum is visible above soil. All the altars and statues were taken to Newcastle, and now stand in the Great North Museum: Hancock. Visitors can walk from Heddon-on-the-Wall along the line of the Wall to the spot where the temple once stood. The surrounding fields still show the faint traces Gillam followed to rediscover the shrine.