Walking Where Legions Once Marched
There is something quietly extraordinary about walking through Exeter's city centre on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon and realising that you are tracing the exact footprint of one of the most important Roman settlements in Britain. The coffee shops and cobbles sit on top of nearly two thousand years of continuous habitation, and the Roman story is still written into the bones of the city — if you know where to look.
Exeter was known to the Romans as Isca Dumnoniorum. The name itself tells a story: "Isca" comes from a Brittonic word describing flowing water, a reference to the River Exe, while "Dumnoniorum" identifies it as the principal settlement of the Dumnonii, the Celtic tribe who inhabited Devon, Cornwall, and parts of Somerset. The name may have originally meant "full of fish" — and anyone who has watched the salmon run on the Exe in autumn might agree that some things haven't changed much in two millennia.
What's remarkable about Exeter's Roman heritage is not just its age, but how much of it survives and how accessible it is. You don't need to travel to a remote field or buy an expensive ticket. The Roman story is embedded in the streets you walk every day, in walls you pass without a second glance, and in one of the strongest regional archaeology collections in the south-west. For anyone exploring Exeter for the first time or spending a weekend in the city, this ancient layer adds extraordinary depth to even an ordinary walk through town.
The Legionary Fortress: Where It All Began
Around AD 55, the Roman Second Augustan Legion — the Legio II Augusta — established a legionary fortress at the site of present-day Exeter. This was no small outpost. Exeter was the westernmost legionary fortress in all of Roman Britain, and one of the furthest west military installations in the entire Roman Empire. The fortress housed around five thousand soldiers and covered an area roughly equivalent to the modern city centre.
The choice of location was strategic. The River Exe provided a natural harbour and transport route, while the elevated ridge on which the city sits offered defensive advantages. From here, the legion could project Roman power across the unconquered south-west — a region that remained culturally distinct from the more Romanised east of Britain for centuries.
Around AD 80, the Second Augustan Legion was relocated to Isca Silurum — modern-day Caerleon in South Wales — and the military fortress at Exeter was gradually replaced by a civilian settlement. The town became the civitas capital of the Dumnonii: essentially the administrative and commercial centre of the entire tribal region. Markets grew, public buildings rose, and Isca Dumnoniorum became a thriving Romano-British town.
The importance of Roman Exeter as a trading centre is demonstrated by the discovery of more than a thousand Roman coins across the city. The dates of these coins suggest the city was at its most prosperous during the first half of the fourth century, before a rapid decline after around AD 380.
The City Walls: Roman Engineering You Can Touch
Perhaps the most visible and impressive Roman legacy in Exeter is the city wall circuit. Roughly three-quarters of the original circuit still survives, making it one of the best-preserved Roman and medieval wall circuits in England.
The walls were first raised by the Romans in the late second century, initially as a bank and ditch defence, and were rebuilt in stone as the settlement grew into a civilian town enclosing a much larger area. The stone walls that you can see today incorporate Roman foundations, though they have been repaired and rebuilt through the Anglo-Saxon, medieval, and Civil War periods. Each era left its mark, so what you see is a layered record of two thousand years of defensive architecture.
The best way to experience the walls is on foot. Exeter City Council maintains a self-guided City Wall Trail with nine information panels at key points around the circuit. The walk takes roughly ninety minutes and passes through some of the city's most attractive areas.
Key Spots on the Wall Walk
Rougemont Gardens is one of the best places to see substantial sections of Roman and medieval wall. The gardens were originally part of the defences of Rougemont Castle, built by William the Conqueror in 1068, but they incorporate much older Roman stonework. The deep ditch in the gardens may have been the original Roman quarry that provided stone for the walls — which would make it one of the oldest industrial sites in the city. Today, the gardens are a peaceful public park maintained by the city council, and the entire site is a scheduled national monument.
Northernhay Gardens, adjacent to Rougemont, is believed to be the oldest public open space in England, laid out in 1612. From the garden paths, you can see impressive stretches of wall standing up to 2.5 metres high in places, with clearly visible Roman masonry at the base.
South Street and the Quay offer further sections where the wall's route can be traced, though here the Roman foundations are less visible beneath later medieval rebuilding. If you're walking from the city centre down to the Quay area, keep an eye on the stonework — you're passing two thousand years of history.
The Roman Bathhouse Beneath Cathedral Green
One of Exeter's most tantalising Roman stories lies beneath Cathedral Green — quite literally. In 1971, during preparatory work for an underground car park, excavations uncovered the remains of a substantial Roman military bathhouse. Known as Isca Thermae, the bathhouse was built around AD 60 and was approximately the same size as the floor area of Exeter Cathedral itself.
Roman bathhouses were not simply places to wash. They were the social hubs of Roman life — places where soldiers and citizens gathered to socialise, conduct business, exercise, and relax. The bathhouse at Exeter would have contained a sequence of heated rooms (the tepidarium, caldarium, and frigidarium), a cold plunge pool, and changing areas. Underfloor heating systems called hypocausts channelled warm air beneath raised floors, and the entire complex required sophisticated engineering to maintain its water supply and temperature.
Sadly, due to a lack of funding at the time of discovery, the remains were controversially reburied beneath the green to protect them. If you walk onto Cathedral Green and stand on the steps near the Devon War Memorial, you are standing directly above a two-thousand-year-old Roman bathhouse. An ambitious proposal in 2014 to excavate and open the bathhouse as a visitor attraction was submitted by Exeter Cathedral, but the funding application was unfortunately rejected. For now, the bathhouse remains hidden — one of Exeter's greatest archaeological secrets, waiting beneath the grass.
Recent Discoveries at the Cathedral
The Roman story beneath Cathedral Green continues to unfold. In 2023, during preparatory work for a new cloister gallery project at Exeter Cathedral, archaeologists unearthed a Roman street surface and timber building remains dating to the fortress era of approximately AD 50 to 75, alongside a stone wall from a third- to fourth-century townhouse overlying medieval foundations. These finds confirm that the cathedral precinct sits directly on top of the Roman settlement's core.
Even more recently, a 2025 excavation in a city centre basement — the former Waterstones building — recovered Roman pottery sherds tied to the site's legacy as a regional capital, as well as early medieval human bones and a fired clay weight. The finds speak to the site’s legacy as the former regional capital, Isca Dumnoniorum. Every time builders dig in Exeter, there is a genuine chance of finding something Roman — a humbling reminder that we are all just the latest occupants of a very old address.
Join one of the free Red Coat Guided Tours to learn more about Roman Exeter. These volunteer-led walking tours depart from the Richard Hooker Statue on Cathedral Green and run throughout the year, except Christmas Day and Boxing Day. No booking is required — just turn up. Tours last approximately ninety minutes and cover everything from Roman history to the medieval wool trade. Note that the Quayside and canal-boat tours start from the Custom House on the Quay, not Cathedral Green, and the canal boat runs in July and August only.
RAMM: Exeter's Roman Collection
The Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery — universally known as RAMM — is one of the finest regional museums in Britain, and its Roman collection is superb. Admission is free.
RAMM's galleries tell the story of Isca Dumnoniorum through a carefully curated collection of artefacts excavated from across the city over more than a century. You'll find Roman pottery, glassware, jewellery, coins, and military equipment, alongside interactive displays that bring the period to life. The museum's approach is accessible without being simplistic — there are hands-on activities where you can try on Roman clothing or have a go at making a mosaic, alongside more detailed archaeological interpretation.
The Local History and Archaeology gallery is particularly strong, placing Roman Exeter within the broader context of the city's development from prehistory to the present day. You can trace the transition from military fortress to civilian town, see evidence of Roman trade connections stretching across the Empire, and understand how daily life in Isca might have looked and felt.
RAMM is located on Queen Street, a short walk from the High Street, and is open Tuesday 10:30am to 5pm, Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm (closed Mondays). It's the kind of museum you can visit in an hour or spend half a day in, depending on your mood. If you're new to Exeter, it's one of the first places worth visiting — not just for the Roman collection, but for everything it tells you about the city you now live in. Check the RAMM website for current exhibitions and events, including the excellent RAMM Lates evenings.
For a broader tour of Devon's museum scene, our guide to the best museums and galleries near Exeter covers many more options.
What Daily Life Was Like in Roman Exeter
It's easy to think of Roman Britain as remote and austere — all marching legions and cold stone. But the archaeological evidence from Exeter paints a more nuanced picture of a cosmopolitan, commercially active town where people lived, worked, traded, and socialised in ways that would feel surprisingly familiar.
The civilian town that replaced the fortress had a typical Roman urban layout: a grid pattern of streets, a forum and basilica (a combined marketplace and law court), public baths, and temples. Houses ranged from modest timber-framed buildings to more substantial stone structures with hypocaust heating and painted plaster walls. Imported goods — fine pottery from Gaul, olive oil from Spain, wine from Italy — arrived via the River Exe, demonstrating that Exeter was well connected to the wider Roman trading network.
People ate well. Archaeological evidence includes animal bones suggesting a diet of beef, lamb, pork, and poultry, alongside fish from the Exe and shellfish from the coast. Bread was baked in communal ovens, and imported luxuries like garum (fermented fish sauce, the ketchup of the Roman world) have been found at sites across the city.
Social life centred on the bathhouse and the forum. People met, gossiped, debated, and formed friendships in these public spaces — not entirely unlike what we try to do today when we gather over a meal or a drink. The Roman instinct for communal dining and shared social space is, if you think about it, precisely what draws people to the restaurants and pubs of modern Exeter.
After the Romans: What Happened Next
The Roman withdrawal from Britain around AD 410 left Exeter, like most Romano-British towns, in a period of uncertainty. Archaeological evidence suggests a rapid decline — virtually no coins dated after AD 380 have been found, and there is very little evidence of habitation for almost three hundred years after the Romans left.
A few tantalising clues survive. The remains of what may have been a church have been identified in the area of the demolished forum, along with a small number of graves dated to the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries. But the bustling Roman town appears to have largely emptied, its buildings slowly crumbling, its streets overgrown.
It was not until the Anglo-Saxon period that Exeter was reoccupied and rebuilt, eventually becoming one of the most important towns in Wessex. King Athelstan fortified the city in the early tenth century, and the Normans built Rougemont Castle in 1068. Each new era built upon the Roman foundations — literally, in many cases — and the outline of the Roman city wall continued to define the shape of the medieval and modern city.
The City Wall Trail is free and self-guided, with nine information panels around the circuit. You can pick up a map from the Custom House Visitor Centre on Exeter Quay — itself a Grade I listed building from 1680, believed to be the first purpose-built custom house in England. Check its opening days before you rely on it: it is open daily from April to October, but only Thursday to Sunday from November to March. The centre also houses an immersive audiovisual presentation covering two thousand years of Exeter's history.
Exploring Roman Exeter Today
Here's a practical summary of where to go and what to see if you want to explore Roman Exeter for yourself.
The City Wall Trail — Free, self-guided, approximately ninety minutes. Start at any of the nine information panels. The Exeter City Council website has downloadable maps and trail information, or you can pick up a free leaflet from the Custom House Visitor Centre. The Rougemont Gardens and Northernhay Gardens sections are the most impressive for visible Roman stonework. Sections of the trail close from time to time for maintenance — check the council's trail page for current diversions before you set out.
RAMM (Royal Albert Memorial Museum) — Queen Street, Exeter. Free admission. Open Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays. The Roman and archaeology galleries are on the ground floor, though individual galleries close for works from time to time.
Cathedral Green — The site of the buried Roman bathhouse. Stand near the Devon War Memorial and contemplate what lies beneath your feet. Combine with a visit to Exeter Cathedral itself.
Red Coat Guided Tours — Free, running year-round except Christmas Day and Boxing Day, most departing from Cathedral Green (the Quayside and canal-boat tours leave from the Custom House instead). No booking required. Various themed walks are available, including routes focusing on Roman and medieval history.
Custom House Visitor Centre — Exeter Quay, EX2 4AN (exetercustomhouse.co.uk). Free admission except for ticketed events. Open daily 10am–5pm from April to October; Thursday to Sunday, 11am–4pm, from November to March. Models, artefacts, and an audiovisual history of the city from Roman times to the present day. Also the starting point for Quayside walking tours.
Walking the Same Streets
There is something deeply grounding about knowing that the city you live in has been continuously inhabited for nearly two thousand years. The streets of Exeter are not just routes between shops and offices — they are paths that Roman soldiers marched along, that medieval merchants bustled through, that Civil War troops defended.
When you walk through Exeter, you are participating in an unbroken tradition of human activity on this particular patch of Devon. The people who lived here in the first century had the same basic needs as we do: shelter, food, community, connection. They gathered in public spaces, shared meals, told stories, and formed friendships.
That instinct — the desire to come together, to share an experience, to connect with other people in a meaningful place — is as old as the city itself. It's why we still gather around tables, why we still seek out good company and good food, and why exploring a place together can be one of the best ways to build a friendship.
Roman Exeter is not just history. It's a reminder that the things that matter most — connection, community, belonging — have always mattered. And they still do.
Planning Your Roman Exeter Day
A Roman Exeter walking day combines naturally with many of the city's other attractions. Avoid Mondays — RAMM is closed. Start with the City Wall Trail, pause for coffee at one of the city's best cafes, visit RAMM's free galleries, then walk down to Cathedral Green to stand above the buried bathhouse before exploring Exeter Cathedral itself. If you have time, continue to the historic Quayside — the Custom House Visitor Centre there has an immersive audiovisual presentation covering two thousand years of the city's history.
The Underground Passages are medieval rather than Roman, but they make a brilliant companion visit — another layer of Exeter's hidden subterranean story. And if you are interested in the broader sweep of the city's past, the Exeter Blitz and rebuilding guide picks up the story in the twentieth century.
For more walking ideas, our best walking routes around Exeter guide includes several history-focused routes that pass the most significant Roman sites. And if you are exploring the city on your own, following the Roman trail is one of the most absorbing ways to spend a morning.
The Visit Exeter website has a helpful article on discovering Roman remains around the city, with a map of key sites. It is an excellent companion to this guide and to the physical City Wall Trail leaflet.