Reference

Date 1974 - 1980

Event ID 546334

Category Documentary Reference

Type Reference

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/546334

No traces of the Roman fort at Mumrills can now be seen above the ground. Excavations in 1923-8, 1958 and 1960 established its outline, as shown on plan with a fortified annexe which housed an extensive civil settlement (vicus) to the W. The size of the fort suggests that it was originally built for a cavalry regiment, the Ala I Tungorum, though an infantry regiment, the Cohors II Thracum is also associated with the site. The fort has been altered in plan at least once and perhaps twice during the Antonine period. Macdonald believed that the site of the annexe had been previously occupied by a 6-acre temporary fort built by Agricola, but this was disproved by the 1958 excavations. If an Agricolan post ever existed at Mumrills, it is more likely to have lain beneath the Antonine fort.

A rectilinear enclosure E of the fort, visible on air photographs was proved to have been of Antonine date, by excavation in 1960. Due to erosion, its precise dimensions cannot be ascertained, but it measured approximately 140 feet E-W by at least 90 feet N-S, with an entrance in the centre of the N side. Traces of what may have been a Roman building were found very close to, if not actually within, this enclosure in 1937 (S Smith 1939).

An altar, now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS), was also found here in 1937. A Roman kiln for making tiles or bricks was discovered in 1913 (G Macdonald and A O Curle 1929) about 100 yds NW of the enclosure, immediately behind the wall (K A Steer 1963).

An altar found in 1841 "near the Bridge at Brightons" about a mile SE of this fort, is in the NMAS, as is a tombstone found in the vicinity of the fort. The small finds, pottery, coins, etc from Macdonald's excavations are fully described by Macdonald (1929), while another

coin, a denarius of Faustina II, found during the demolition of houses on the N side of Grahamsdyke Street, is in Falkirk Museum (Accession no: D 432); it was submitted to Miss A S Robertson in 1958 by Miss D M Hunter, Dollar Park Museum, 10 October 1973.

Pottery and tiles have also been picked up at the site in 1972 and 1974.

A S Robertson 1973; RCAHMS 1963, visited 1958; E J Price and G J Price 1972; E J Price 1974