Jason Arunn MurugesuNorth East and Cumbria
The Vindolanda Trust
Dr Elizabeth Greene says several of the shoes at the site were over 30cm (11.8in) long
Mysteriously large shoes discovered at a Roman fort are to be put on public display.
Archaeologist Rachel Frame said 34 shoes were dug up at the Magna Roman Fort in Northumberland in 2025 – eight of which were at least 30cm (11.8in) long, the equivalent of a UK size 13 to 14.
In comparison, of the 5,000 discovered at the nearby Vindolanda settlement in Hexham over the past 55 years, just four or five were that large, according to Roman archaeology expert Dr Elizabeth Greene.
Ms Frame said some of the shoes will be exhibited at the Roman Army Museum in Brampton, Cumbria, from 7 February.
The archaeologist said that while it was clear the leather shoes belonged to tall people, the mystery over why the individuals were stationed at the fort remained.
“We know that certain parts of the Roman world would have specialist regiments recruited into the army because they have a particular skillset – whether that’s in horse riding or archery,” she said.
“So potentially we’ve got a more specialist unit at the site [for whom] it was advantageous to be taller,” she said.
The Vindolanda Trust
The largest shoe found was 32.6cm (12.8in) long
Ms Frame said the team would only be able to solve the mystery through more excavations.
She said it hoped to find evidence on altars they may find during the dig, noting that tombstones often mention the unit that soldiers were a part of.
“They can give quite a lot of personal detail,” she said.
Another way of gaining clues include looking for objects related to specific cultural practices that the soldiers may have brought over from their homelands.
The Vindolanda Trust
The shoes were found in a defensive Roman ditch during a dig
However, these discoveries are only likely to occur in the final two years of the dig, she said, starting in April.
“We [will be] inside the fort and going down through all the different phases,” she said. “That’s where those objects are most likely to come from.”
Ms Frame previously said that so many shoes have been found at both Vindolanda and Magna Roman Fort because of their ground conditions.
Due to low oxygen conditions in the soil at the sites, the leather shoes have been preserved for centuries.
