Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Upcoming Maintenance
Please be advised that this website will undergo scheduled maintenance on the following dates:
Thursday, 9 January: 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Thursday, 23 January: 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Thursday, 30 January: 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
During these times, some functionality such as image purchasing may be temporarily unavailable. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Field Visit
Date 30 June 2016
Event ID 1014575
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1014575
What may be the remains of a Roman watchtower are situated on the summit of Craik Cross Hill about 8km NE of the fort at Raeburnfoot (NY29NE 5) to which it is linked by a Roman road (NT30SW 3) which passes 6m to its SE. Roughly circular on plan, this grass-, rush- and heather-grown earthwork comprises a conical mound 11.5m in diameter and 0.7m in height, enclosed by a rock-cut ditch 1.5m broad and 0.2m deep, and a counterscarp bank up to 2m thick and 0.2m high - the whole measuring about 18m in diameter overall. The outer edge of the bank is broken by a gap 3.6m wide on the SW, but the feature is entirely lost beyond the ruined fence to the ENE, which marks the old county boundary between Roxburgh and Dumfriesshire. By contrast, the ditch appears broken only on the E, where there is a gap 2.6m wide which may represent an entrance. The summit of the mound, which is 8m in diameter, is surmounted by a small, subcircular tump (see NT30SW 1). This measures 6m from NW to SE by 5.5m transversely and 0.3m high. Faint traces of St Joseph's excavation trench, measuring 1m wide and up to 0.1m deep, can be detected crossing the earthwork from NE to SW (St Joseph 1947).
The road to the SE, which is set into a rush-, grass- and peat-grown cutting about 7m broad and at least 0.6m deep, bifurcates immediately S of the earthwork. There is a small grass-grown earthen mound close to its E lip about 18m to its E, while a series of irregularly spaced forestry furrows are situated within a thin scatter of conifers 8m to its NE.
The best analogies for the earthwork are at Ewes Doors (NY39NE 4) and White Type (NT01SE 2), which are also situated adjacent to Roman roads at points where wheeled traffic, in particular, might experience difficulties in tackling the long, relatively steep climbs that were necessary to reach them.
The odd configuration of the earthwork's profile probably results from the excavation and back-filling of the central pit, which was sectioned by St Joseph and found to contain 18th-19th century china. The unknown antiquaries had possibly interpreted the mound as a barrow.
Visited by HES, Survey and Recording (ATW, GFG) 30 June 2016.
