Ilkley Roman Fort is a Roman fort on the south bank of the River Wharfe, at the centre of the modern town of Ilkley, a Victorian spa town in West Yorkshire, England.

Identification

The traditional view is that Olicana is the fort at Ilkley, but the identification is not settled. Ptolemy mentions Olikana in his Geographia (c. 150), although Rivet and Smith give Olenacum as the proper form of the name, rejecting Ptolemy's Olikana as corrupt. The 1086 Domesday Book gives Ilecliue also variants Illecliue, Illiclei and Illicleia for Ilkley. Modern scholarship has, however, suggested that the Roman name would be better applied to the fort at Elslack (Eleslac in Domesday Book) near Skipton. but this was later abandoned in the 120s. Anglo-Saxon settlement probably did not take place until well into the seventh century, and the sculptured crosses are evidence of a church here in the eighth and ninth centuries. Around the area are four signs showing the edges of the walls of the fort. The area of the fort extends underneath the Manor House and nearby All Saints Parish Church whilst the vicus probably existed from the car park in the centre of Ilkley to Christchurch on The Grove. The church and Manor House both have a collection of Roman altars and tombstones, Anglo-Saxon crosses, and Medieval tombstones. The Roman altars date to the reigns of Antoninus Pius (138 to 161), and Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla (211 to 217).

References

  • Ilkley Manor House - Art Gallery and Museum
  • ILKLEY - The Romans in West Yorkshire - West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service