Field Visit

Date 1 December 1958

Event ID 1111429

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1111429

RCAHMS Inventory: Stirlingshire

NS87NW 843 798

Roman Fort, Rough Castle.

Rough Castle, the best preserved of the forts on the Antonine Wall, is situated one mile E. of Bonnybridge, in a belt of rough moorland which is now largely overgrown with trees and bracken. Guarding the point where the Rowan Tree Burn breaks through the ridge on which the Wall stands, the fort is protected by the deep ravine of the burn on the W., by a longer and more gentle descent to the floor of the Carron Valley on the N., and by a shallow trough of marshy ground to the S. Thus the only easy access is from the E., where a level space immediately outsidet he defences is occupied by a relatively large annexe. In 1903 extensive excavations were undertaken in both the fort and the annexe (1), and in 1932-3 the defences of both works were re-examined by Sir George Macdonald (2). Inevitably these excavations left a number of problems unsolved, and now that the site has been placed under the guardianship of the Ministry of Works it is being systematically explored afresh as part of a planned programme of conservation (3).

The fort is square on plan (Fig. 38), and, apart from Duntocher, is the smallest known fort on the Antonine Wall: it measures only 215 ft. each way within the rampart and has an internal area of a little over one acre. The northern defence was formed by the Wall itself and its Ditch, while about 30 yds. beyond the Ditch a unique series of defensive pits, or lilia, was found in 1903. The pits, some of which are still visible at the present time, were arranged in ten parallel rows, each pit being about 7 ft. long by 3 ft. broad at the top and 2 ½ ft. deep. On the other three sides the fort rampart was built of turf, laid on a stone foundation 20 ft. in thickness, and was fronted by two ditches. A short length of a third ditch, with an upcast mound on the outer lip, was added near the foot of the slope on the W. side. There were four gates, the N. one being double, and their arrangement shows that the fort faced N. Initially the Military Way appears to have run from E. to W. directly through the fort, serving as the via principalis, but subsequently a by-pass was constructed to skirt the defences on the S., as shown in Fig. 38. Inside the fort the remains of three stone buildings were uncovered in 1903. Of these, the headquarters building (Fig. 38, I), in the centre of the fort, measured 75 ft. by 44 ft. over the walls: it seems to have had only three rooms at the back instead of the usual five, and beneath the · floor of the central room (sacellum) there was a small cellar which served as the strong-room for the regimental funds. From the ruins of the principia came three fragments of an inscribed tablet (Number i infra) commemorating the erection of the building by the Sixth Cohort of Nervii. Immediately to the W. of the headquarters building there was a granary (II) with a loading platform at the N. end, and beyond this again lay the commandant's house (III), a large, rectangular structure consisting of a series of rooms ranged round an open courtyard. No other buildings were recognised inside the fort in 1903, but during the current excavations postholes of timber-framed buildings, presumably barracks, have been found in the NW. quarter.

The annexe was slightly larger than the fort and was defended on the exposed sides by a rampart 15 ft. in thickness, in front of which there were three ditches on the E. and a single ditch on the S. As originally designed, it had a gateway in the E. side to admit the Military Way, but Macdonald thought that this had subsequently been closed and replaced by an entrance at the SW. corner. The only structures which have been identified in the annexe are a bath-house (IV), and, in the NW. corner, an oblong, cobbled enclosure, bounded on the S. and E. by a small ditch and measuring about 130 ft. by 60 ft. Macdonald suggested that this enclosure might have been used in the first instance as a barrack-yard and later for storage, but its purpose is obscure, and it is difficult to understand why it should have been considered necessary to protect it by a ditch if it was already contained within the annexe defences. Without more specific evidence it would, however, be rash to conclude that the enclosure is analogous to the small fortified post which immediately preceded the fort at Duntocher, and which remained in use when the fort was built alongside it (4).

That the fort at Rough Castle did not enjoy an unbroken occupation is suggested by structural changes present in the stone buildings examined in 1903.Whether there were, in fact, three separate Antonine occupations, as Macdonald believed, is however an open question, since re-examination of the rampart on the N. and W. sides of the fort has not confirmed his hypothesis that it was thickened on two successive occasions, and his analysis of the structural sequence represented by the annexe defences is largely conjectural. Recent research has also materially weakened the case which he presented (5) for an Agricolan occupation of the site. The latest excavations in the NW. quarter of the fort have produced no evidence, whether structural or otherwise, for such an occupation, and a fresh study of the pottery from the earlier excavations has shown a complete absence of Flavian wares (6). Moreover, neither the defensive pits in front of the Wall, nor the fragmentary ditches found in 1932-3 a short distance E. of the cobbled enclosure (7), are necessarily pre-Antonine (8). The work now in progress will doubtless resolve this problem in due course, and in the meantime conjecture would be profitless.

INSCRIBED STONES. Amongst the relics from the site which are housed in the National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh, there are the following two inscribed stones:

(i) Three fragments of a building inscription (Fig. 39) which were found in the principia of the fort in 1903, in what may have been a well. The inscription reads [Imp(eratori) Ca ]esari Tito [Aelio] Hadriano [Anto]nino Aug(usto) [Pio] P(atri) P(atriae) coh(ors) VI [Ner]viorumpri[ ncip ]ia fecit. ‘The Sixth Cohort of the Nervii erected the headquarters building for the Emperor Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, Father of his country.’ See PSAS., xxxix (1904-5), 470-2; RWS, 410-12 and pl. xl, 2.

(ii) An altar (Fig. 40) which was discovered a short distance to the S. of the fort in 1843. It reads Victoriae coh(ors) VI Nerviorum c(ui) c(urat) Fl(avius) Betto c(enturio ) lege(ionis) XX V(aleriae) V(ictricis) v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) l(aetus) m(erito). ‘To Victory, the Sixth Cohort of Nervii under the charge of Flavius Betto, a centurion of the Twentieth Legion, Valeria Victrix, has paid its vow willingly, gladly and deservedly.’ See CIL., vii, 1092; RWS, 418-9 and pl. xl, I.

RCAHMS 1963, visited 1 December 1958.

(1) PSAS., xxxix (1904-5), 442-99.

(2) Ibid., lxvii (1932-3), 243 ff.

(3) The Commissioners are indebted to the Ancient Monuments Inspectorate, through Mr. Iain MacIvor, for information about these latest excavations in advance of publication.

(4) Robertson, A. S., An Antonine Fort, Golden Hill, Duntocher, fig. 4.

(5) RWS, 234-8.

(6) The Commissioners are indebted to Mr. and Mrs. B. R. Hartley for information on this point. The Flavian mortarium rim cited by Macdonald (R. W.S., 238) has evidently been wrongly labelled. Although marked ‘Rough Castle’, it is unquestionably part of the mortarium from Camelon, stamped Q. Valerius Veranius, with which Macdonald compares it.

(7) PSAS, lxvii (1932-3), 262-3 and fig. 7.

(8) It is worth noting that the filling of the pit which was examined in 1920 contained only Antonine sherds (Ibid., lix

(1924-5), 285-7).