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Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017431
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017431
Viewed from the road, which slices its north-western corner, this large fort of 3.3 ha shows up only slightly as a ditched platform. Viewed from the air, which is how it was first identifIed in 1949 (having previously been marked on maps as the supposed site of an abbey), it presents a detailed cropmark of characteristic gridded 'playing card' shape, complete with annexes and at least six temporary camps in the vicinity. Placed on the east bank of the River Dee, this was obviously a major centre of Roman control in Galloway, the westward limits of which are still unknown beyond Gatehouse (NX 595574).
Study of its layout as revealed by aerial photography has suggested comparison with Birrens (no. 48), and during the Antonine periods it could have housed a similar general purpose garrison, namely, a partmounted milliary unit of the auxiliary army. The defences are especially broad. Excavations in 1952 demonstrated a succession of three forts, preceded by an early and temporary Flavian occupation. The first, late Flavian (late 1st century), fort may have occupied part of the plateau closer to Glenlochar House, and ended in what was described as 'wholesale conflagration'; it was replaced by a fort of the first Antonine period, later modifIed.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Dumfries and Galloway’, (1986).
