Right in front of you, you'll spot an ancient-looking arched gateway made from rough stones and red Roman bricks-just keep an eye out for those chunky, weathered arches with a cobbled floor underneath them!
Welcome to the mighty Balkerne Gate, the grand finale of our Colchester adventure! Imagine yourself standing here nearly two thousand years ago when this gateway wasn’t just a lonely set of ruins but a bustling entrance into the Roman town of Camulodunum. Roman soldiers in gleaming armor would have marched through these towering arches, with traders, travelers, and all sorts of quirky characters passing by-some in togas, others carrying mysterious wares from far-off lands. The gate was a big deal. It was where the Roman road from Londinium (that's London!) met the protective town wall. And get this: it’s the largest surviving Roman gateway in Britain! That’s right, nowhere else in the country can you find a Roman gate quite as impressive.
Now, let’s set the scene. The year is about 150 AD. The air is thick with the smells of campfires and cookshops. Chariots clatter along the stone roads, and the massive gate looms ahead, with its two super-wide carriageways, plus two footpaths-so four arches in all! That’s pretty rare, even by Roman standards. You’d have had guards watching from the towers, making sure no unwanted visitors snuck in (or out) after curfew. But time, as it loves to do, played a clever trick: most of the original gate was swallowed up by later buildings, including a rather cheeky 18th-century pub now called the Hole in the Wall. Only this southern arch and the ghostly remains of a guard tower stay with us, holding secrets of centuries gone by.
So as you stand here, close your eyes for a second and picture the bustling life, echoing footsteps, and the sense of anticipation each time someone passed beneath these brick and flint arches-heading either to new adventures or back home for a well-earned Roman nap. And don’t worry, if the walls start whispering to you, it’s probably just the old Roman guards-and if you hear someone shouting “Halt! Who goes there?”, well, I guess the magic of Colchester caught up with us at last!
