Discovery! 8 ancient Roman shoes of 'exceptional size' discovered at Roman fort in England

How many men do you know with a size 14 sneaker? Recently archaeologists excavating near Hadrian's Wall in England (the site of an ancient Roman settlement) found footwear from soldiers that large!  Here's the story.

 

(Photo: The largest Roman shoe ever discovered has been found at Magna fort in the U.K.   Image credit: The Vindolanda Trust)

8 ancient Roman shoes of 'exceptional size' discovered at Roman fort near Hadrian's Wall

By Kristina Killgrove Live Science, July 3, 2025

Eight XXL leather shoes have been recovered from Magna, a Roman-era fort along Hadrian's Wall.

Archaeologists excavating a Roman-era fort in northern England have unearthed several enormous ancient leather soles that measure more than 11.8 inches (30 centimeters) long. Hadrian's Wall is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian.

The finds add to the archaeologists' growing collection of supersized ancient footwear found at the ancient fort, known as Magna. The researchers now have eight of these extra-extra-large shoes — a quarter of the total found at the site.

Hadrian's Wall is located in England and identifies where Roman settlements were located. It spans 73 miles from coast to coast. Hadrian’s Wall was built to guard the wild north-west frontier of the Roman Empire. Discover the remains of the forts, and towns that once kept watch over the Wall.

"I think there is something very different going on here at Magna," Elizabeth Greene, an archaeologist at Western University in Ontario, Canada and a specialist in ancient shoes, said in a statement. "Even from this small sample uncovered, it is clear that these shoes are much larger on average than most of the Vindolanda collection."

The shoes were discovered at Magna — also known as Carvoran — a fort along Hadrian's Wall, which was built around A.D. 122 to demarcate the northern extent of the Roman Empire. Magna is situated about 7 miles (11 kilometers) west of Vindolanda, the large Roman auxiliary fort that's well known for the remarkable preservation of writing tablets, military medals and leather shoes.

In May, 2025, archaeologists unearthed an enormous leather shoe while digging at the bottom of one of Magna's "ankle-breaker" defensive ditches — narrow, deep trenches that, when full of water, could cause an enemy soldier to trip and snap their ankle. The waterlogged conditions in the ditch created an oxygen-free environment that preserved the leather shoe. 

The sole of the giant shoe measured 12.6 inches (32 cm) long, which is the equivalent of a men's U.S. 14 or U.K. size 13 shoe today. For context, the average U.S. men's shoe size is around 10.5, while basketball player LeBron James wears a size U.S. 15 and Michael Jordan wears a U.S. 13.5.

Further excavations revealed the Magna ditch contained a total of 32 shoes in a range of sizes, from children's to adults', which adds to the collection of more than 5,000 ancient leather shoes found at the nearby fort of Vindolanda, according to the statement.