Field Visit
Date 26 November 1997
Event ID 1127517
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1127517
NN81NE 2.00 8980 1800
NN81NE 2.01 8964 1802 Annexes
NN81NE 2.02 8958 1807 Enclosure
NN81NE 2.03 8963 1831 Cropmarks; Enclosures (possible)
NN81NE 2.04 897 190 Flint Blade
Not to be confused with Roman temporary camp at Strageath Cottage (centred NN 8904 1803), for which see NN81NE 16.
Excavations of this fort between 1973 and 1986 indicated three successive phases of military occupation with a complete remodelling of the defences on each re-occupation. The Flavian fort was built in the late first century AD, perhaps as early as AD 80, with evacuation no later than AD 87. The second fort (Antonine I) was built about AD 142, this occupation coming to an end within the period AD 155-8. By 158, however, the site was reoccupied (Antonine II), before being finally evacuated by 164 at the latest (Frere and Wilkes 1989). A recent assessment of the Antonine occupation of Scotland has cast significant doubt on whether there was a distinct Antonine II phase, suggesting instead a single 2nd century occupation (Hodgson 1995). While the weight of excavated evidence from Strageath indicates two distinct Antonine phases, in the light of this research it may be more appropriate to see this in terms of rebuilding rather than reoccupation after a period of abandonment.
Excavation was confined to the fort and did not investigate the complex of annexes to the W. Prehistoric activity on the fort site is attested through the excavations, both through the identification of cultivated soils under the rampart and in the recovery of a few artefacts. Pottery dating from the earlier half of the 1st millennium BC and possibly also from the 3rd millennium BC were recovered, together with a collection of undiagnostic flints. The tip of a fine Mesolithic blade was found in the interior of the fort in March 1997.
The fort is situated on a ridge which extends up to an escarpment on the W of the River Earn. The ground falls away to an unnamed burn on the S and also to the low-lying ground on the N, where the River Earn, after running E to W, turns to the S to run past the fort on the E. To the W the ground drops away very gently, and does not rise appreciably for at least 400m. Despite being under the plough, some elements of the fort are visible on the ground and are recorded on a contour survey undertaken in March 1997. The line of the rampart is clearly visible as a swelling in the surface of the ground up to about 0.8m in height, but with no visible breaks to mark the locations of the entrances. The S and W sides of the annexe can also be traced as a low spread bank, and the line of the road running into the fort through the annexes can be traced as a low gravel ridge.
Much fine detail of the defences is visible on the aerial photographs taken prior to the campaign of excavation. The cropmarks of the rampart measure about 10m across, corresponding to the thickness of the final phase of fortification identified in the excavations. In places the outer lip of the inner ditch, which was partly built over in the final phase, can also be detected. In addition the lines of a further five defensive ditches are visible, the outer ones relating to the construction of the annexes to the W of the fort in the Antonine occupation.
Further ditches are visible as cropmarkings to the WNW and NW of the fort. Three sides of what may have been a rectangular enclosure, measuring about 48m from N to S by at least 30m transversely within a ditch about 4m across, lie to the W of the fort (NN 8958 1809). A gap on the S may have been an entrance giving access to the road. Further ditches are visible in the field to the SE of the farm, perhaps forming additional annexes taking in most of the lower lying ground to the N of the fort. Several large maculae in this field may have been quarries (NN 8976 1827, NN 8981 1822).
The lighter cropmarks of the road are clearly visible running into the fort from the W. A branch runs along the W of the northern annexe, before turning E towards the river. A road also runs out of the N entrance of the fort.
Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 26 November 1997
S Frere and J Wilkes 1989; N Hodgson 1995
