The Roman Britain Travel Map

The theme for day seven of the #30DayMapChallenge is Accessibility. For this challenge I decided to visualize travel times in Roman Britain.

My Roman Britain Travel Map allows you to see how far it was possible to travel along Roman roads in Britain on foot in one to five day periods.

The Roman Britain Travel Map visualizes the vast network of Roman roads that crisscrossed Britain nearly two millennia ago. Using historical data from Itiner-e, the map shows not only the ancient routes themselves but also the forts, settlements, and key locations that these roads connected.

How It Works

At the heart of the map is a dynamic travel-time calculator. Simply click anywhere on the map, and the system will highlight the sections of road reachable within one day, two days, and up to five days.

The calculations are based on estimated historical walking speeds of ~25 km per day.

From the clicked location, the map progressively colors the roads to indicate how far a traveler could realistically reach within each day. Red indicates Day 1, orange for Day 2, yellow for Day 3, and so on, giving a clear visual sense of mobility in Roman Britain.

Discover Key Sites Along the Way

Each road segment is enriched with Pleiades place data, showing forts, settlements, and stations along the route. Click on a point to see details like:

• Name of the site

• Type (fort, settlement, station)

• Active years

The map also displays Roman place-name data directly from the Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire (DARE), which itself builds on the excellent Pleiades gazetteer. These place-names are displayed on top of a customized OpenFreeMap layer (with the layer's modern place-names turned off).