Golden Hill Park, Duntocher, Gradiometer Survey

Date 12 July 2021 - 16 July 2021

Event ID 1143545

Category Recording

Type Magnetometry

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1143545

Antonine Wall Geophysics Project

Historic Environment Scotland, Archaeological Survey Team, undertook gradiometer survey of 3.9ha at Golden Hill Park, West Dunbartonshire, between 12 July 2021 and 16 July 2021 using a hand-propelled Sensys MXPDA system mounted on a Sensys F-type non-magnetic cart. The survey, which forms part of a wider Antonine Wall Geophysical Survey project, covered the remains of Duntocher fortlet, fort and annexe, a bathhouse and a stretch of the Antonine wall. It was undertaken to (a) better understand the relationship between the fortlet and fort, (b) investigate the internal layout of the fortlet and fort, (c) investigate the possibility of a southern gateway to the fort, (d) investigate the arrangement of ditches to the northeast of the fort, (e) investigate any extra-mural settlement between the fort and the bathhouse, (f) identify any previously unidentified Roman features in the area and (g) explore the area for other previously unrecorded archaeological features.

The survey results are summarised below, drawing out the main points from a comprehensive report outlining methodology and detailed results [1]. The archive also includes the unprocessed survey data, processed survey data [2], survey area extents which contain the survey metadata, and point, line, and polygon interpretations [3].

Survey within the fortlet, fort and annexe has identified areas likely to contain internal structures. The detail, layout and function of these structures is not clear. The most significant outcome of the survey is to confirm the presence of a triple-ditch system to the northeast of the fort, which at present is a unique feature along the line of the Antonine Wall. The ditch system does not appear to extend beyond the extents of the fort and annexe, suggesting that the construction of the fort, the annexe, and the triple-ditch system were contemporary. If this is the case, this indicates that the fortlet was superseded by a fort built around its location and the triple-ditch system constructed at or around the same time, with the fort sub-divided into fort and annexe at a later date. This would support Swan’s (1999) interpretation of the sequence of this site.

The causeways across this ditch system relate to the northeastern gateway of the fortlet, indicating that the ditches were dug when the fortlet’s gateway was still in use. As no additional causeways have been identified crossing the triple-ditch system, the fort does not appear to have had further gateways along its northeast rampart. If the fortlet gate remained the northeastern gateway for the fort, direct access to the smaller fort envisaged in the sequence proposed by Robertson (1957) would not be possible, providing further support for the construction of a larger fort and sub-division to create the annexe at a later date.

No extra-mural activity of Roman date has been identified in the survey area, though this cannot be fully assessed as many of the areas likely to contain these features were not surveyable.

The survey has identified a possible enclosure which may pre-date the Roman occupation of the site, though the dating of this feature is not certain [4]. Traces of post-medieval rig and furrow cultivation and field boundaries have also been identified, with the location of a bandstand depicted on the revised edition of the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map (Dunbartonshire 1939, sheet nXXIII.6) also clearly visible [5].

Visited by HES Archaeological Survey (N. Hannon, A. McCaig, G. Geddes, L. Banaszek), 12 July to 16 July 2021.

[1] http://canmore.org.uk/collection/2239590

[2] http://canmore.org.uk/collection/2239594

[3] http://canmore.org.uk/collection/2239607

[4] http://canmore.org.uk/site/373299

[5] http://canmore.org.uk/site/373300