Whitley Castle is a large and uniquely shaped Roman fort (Latin: castra) north-west of Alston, Cumbria, England that was known to the Romans as Epiacum. The fort was built early in the 2nd century and at least partly demolished and rebuilt around AD 200.
Whereas Roman forts are normally "playing-card shaped" (rectangular with rounded corners), Whitley Castle is lozenge-shaped to fit the available site. In addition, it has the most complex defensive earthworks of any known fort in the Roman Empire, with multiple banks and ditches outside the usual stone ramparts. The fort appears to have been sited to control and protect lead mining in the area as well as to support the border defences of Hadrian's Wall.
The fort was surveyed by the geologist Thomas Sopwith in the 19th century and the historian R.G. Collingwood in the 20th, with a geophysics survey in the 21st, but it has not been fully excavated. Among finds at the fort are altars with inscriptions to Hercules by the 6th Legion of the Roman army (normally stationed at York) and to Apollo by the fort's garrison of auxiliaries, the 2nd Cohort of Nervians. Other finds include a midden containing shoes; coins, fragments of Samian pottery, beads, nails, and a bronze handle shaped like a dolphin.
I once knew that everything around me leapt for you
And I spoke with fiery tongue of heavens fall and of
your kingdom come
The words I was saying were leaving with ease but
countered the actions that follow my feet
Oh the seduction of meaningless things
I've been eating from gravesides
Swearing oaths to the fairest of moons
Trading masters by firelight
And sleeping in their tombs
All creation waits - Aching for the day
(Earth, the sky, and savage tide will vanish under
heavens rise - falling, fading)
There is no escape - From what the author fates
(Greater souls than we conceive - Concern themselves
with our retreat)
I've been drifting in my words
I've been shifting my affection to whatever love may
call my name
Babel were your men so dim
To build their gods and worship them
Erect escape in increments
And place their faith in intellect
Now we've been weeping at gravesides
Swearing hope is an island away
Just a spark for the firelight
To keep despair at bay
My brothers, we are foolish
If this is how we think we can exist, there is no hope
We are all hopeless, we are broken
No tower built could ever save our souls
There is no hope, there is no
All creation waits
Aching for the day
(Falling, fading)
There is no escape
From what the author fates
(Falling, fading)
We've been living in shadows
Soon exposed to the light
Our existence will rupture
When the maker arrives
Every vanity shattered
Every galaxy frayed
We will suffer no longer
In these delicate frames
But no man knows the season or the time
And fault will find us all in guilty lives
And only mercy can a hope provide
Return, Repent,