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Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016609
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016609
The best-preserved section of the Antonine Wall lies between Bonnybridge House (NS 834799) and the fort at Rough Castle. This section includes fine stretches of the rampalt and ditch, with the remains of two signalling platforms, traces of the Militaty Way and the most complete of the Wall forts.
The fort and its annexe lie at the east end of this section of the Wall and occupy a carefully chosen position in the angle between the rampart and the gully of the Rowantree Bum. Rough Castle is one of the smallest of the forts along the Wall (0.4 ha) and it was excavated in 1904 (the remains of the stone buildings found at the time have been reburied). The fort was defended by a turf rampart that was butted on to the Wall sometime after the latter's construction, but they were both part of the same plan, as a causeway had been left by the ditch diggers to allow access to the fort from the north. The Military Way entered the fort through the West Gate, after crossing the Rowantree Burn on a wooden bridge, whence it became the plincipal road in the fort before leaving again by the East Gate; a by-pass for through-traffic along the Military Way ran around the south side of the defences.
An annexe was built on to the more open east flank of the fort; it was defended by a rampart and single ditch on the south, but on the east there were two additional, rather widely spaced, ditches. The annexes to Wall forts provided extra space but also served as ideal locations for bath-houses which were considerable fire-risks if placed within the forts themselves. The excavators reburied the bath-houses but the remains of a comparable building, also located in a fort annexe, can be seen at Bearsden fort, no. 75. An unusual feature of the defences at Rough Castle, and only discovered because of the excavation, is a regular selies of pits, which concealed sharpened stakes, lying to the north-west of the causeway across the Wall ditch. These pits, known as lillia (lillies), were designed to break up any massed attack on the vulnerable gateway through the Wall.
Between the fort and the car park, and west of the car park, the Wall and ditch survive in good condition. About 60 m west of the cattle-glid at the entrance to the site, there is a beacon- or signalling-stance attached to the rear of the Wall, and another is situated closer to Bonnybridge House. In this section the Military Way lies beneath the modern track, but its course is marked by a series of quarry-pits visible between the rear of the Wall and the track; these pits were dug to provide gravel for the Roman causeway.
Finds from the fort are preserved in the Royal Museum of Scotland, Queen Street, Edinburgh.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).
