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Field Visit
Date 8 December 2015 - 9 December 2015
Event ID 1006315
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1006315
This Roman watchtower is situated on the crest of a natural knoll, near the foot of Pikethaw Hill and about 30m S of the old road (NY39NE 29) that runs through Ewes Doors, a narrow pass linking the valley of the Eweslees Water to the SE and that of the Wrangway Burn to the NW. Circular on plan, the grass-grown earthwork comprises a conical mound 17.5m in diameter and 0.6m high, enclosed by a ditch 1.15m wide and 0.15m deep and a counterscarp bank up to 4m thick, 0.4m high -the whole measuring 25.5m in diameter overall. The summit of the mound measures 11m in diameter over a circular bank 2.7m thick and 0.15m high. It is broken by an entrance on the NNW leading out onto a causeway across the ditch. In the interior, which is 5m across, there are two shallow depressions on the NE and SE respectively, each measuring 0.7m in diameter and possibly marking the positions of two out of perhaps four corner-posts that once provided the framework for a 4m square timber tower.
The site is overlooked by steeply rising ground on the SW, down which a narrow path descends before fading 12m from the knoll. It is also overseen by rising ground on the N side of the pass. The road, itself, measures about 2m wide as it approaches the gate marking the summit from the E; but W of this point it runs along a terrace up to 5m broad, before dropping down to the haugh E of the Wrangway Burn. A later hollow way takes a short cut to this lower ground by descending the N facing scarp immediately W of the gate.
The outlook SE from the earthworks extends down Eweslees Hope to the barns of Eweslees Farm with Castlewink and the high hills behind rising in the background, while to the N it reaches to the summit of Merrypath Rig and to the confluence of the streams forming Limiecleuch Burn. The tower is isolated and not one of a series, but it allowed the military to keep watch over traffic as it passed along the road through this difficult hilly country. It guarded the pass and could promise practical help to convoys of waggons or pack animals labouring on the steeper ascents. Its sentries are likely to have been drawn from an unknown fort, or fortlet, no more than perhaps half-a-day's march - about 10 Roman miles (14km) away. The best parallels are of Flavian date and this would be in keeping with the establishment of the fort at Broomholm (NY38SE 7) about 20km S. However, the origin and early history of the road passing through Ewes Doors is hardly known and it might equally be attributed to an Antonine date.
Visited by RCAHMS (ATW and GG), 9 December 2015.
