Excavation

Date May 1989

Event ID 1032675

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1032675

NS 8848 7981 The point at which the West Burn of Falkirk passed through the Antonine Wall was examined. The wide, shallow burn was first canalized and then culverted by the Wall builders. The culvert was of larger than usual construction with capping stones measuring up to 90cm by 70cm in size. Two culverts of the size normally associated with the Wall lay 1.5m and 3.6m to the W. The S half of the Wall base and the main culvert were sealed with puddle clay to keep the Wall foundation watertight. The S part of the Wall was also given an extra foundation of rounded cobbles. The burn itself was canalized for some distance to the N of the Wall. A shallow depression set hard up against the N kerb of the Wall base may represent the butt end of the frontier Ditch. This section of the Wall appears to have been dismantled upon abandonment with the large capping stones placed in stacks of two to three to the N of the Wall, adjacent to the burn. The whole area was subsequently covered with sand and gravel brought in by the flooding burn (Bailey 1989).