Watching Brief

Date May 1999

Event ID 568827

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/568827

NS 6747 7504 In May 1999 Headland Archaeology Ltd carried out an archaeological watching brief during the construction of the Kelvin Valley Sewer. A possible Roman enclosure was discovered NW of the Antonine Wall at Auchendavy. This section of the sewer ran along the foot of the slope below Auchendavy Farm, 100m N of the Antonine Wall and adjacent to the River Kelvin. Access to this section of the sewer required the creation of two temporary roads over the line of the Antonine Wall and the opportunity was taken to confirm its precise position at these points (At NS 6742 7492 (see NS67SE 42.00) and at NS 6817 7516) Monitoring during the stripping of the way-leave for the pipe trench identified archaeological features over a 150m section. The majority of features uncovered appeared to form part of a medieval or later field enclosure system. Three stratigraphically earlier ditches contained only Roman artefacts and their close proximity to the Antonine Wall and Roman fort (see NS67SE 12) at Auchendavy suggested that they might be contemporary with the frontier wall.

A machine-excavated trench was opened along the length of the proposed route for both access roads along the Antonine Wall; both were stripped of topsoil and hand-cleaned in order to confirm the position of the Rampart and Ditch so that they could be protected during construction of the access roads. Both the Rampart base and Ditch were revealed in Access Road 16 (At NS 6817 9516) just N of the B8023 road, confirming the assumed location of the Antonine Wall. Preservation of the Rampart base was extremely poor with only a small number of stones remaining. Only the Ditch (see NS67SE 42.00 at NS 6742 7491) was uncovered at Access Road 14 (at NS 6742 7516). It was recorded further S than expected and this indicates that the Wall curves to the SW.

M Hastie 2002

A Dunwell, G Bailey, A Leslie, A Smith 2002.