Excavation

Date 1991 - 1992

Event ID 571981

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/571981

NS87NE 42 8873 7972

The first phase in the excavation of a development site in the Pleasance of Falkirk was completed in August 1991. The north-east corner of a Roman Fort was located. The fort pre-dated the Antonine Wall, but was associated with Antonine pottery. The ditch was 2.9m deep from the Roman ground level and c.5m wide. A second ditch, only 1.9 deep, led off this corner for a distance of 13m before itself turning to the S. These diches had been deliberately backfilled and a stone foundation for a timber building laid over them. At the same time new timber buildings of post-hole construction were erected beyond the eastern ditches of the original enclosure. These buildings belong to the annexe of a new Roman Fort, presumably reconstructed with the arrival of the Antonine Wall. Hearths and kilns attest the nature of this second phase. On the Roman abandonment of the site a layer of dark brown cultivation soil accumulated over the buildings.

Further work is scheduled for the end of 1991.

Sponsors: Falkirk Museum, KDL Homes , Historic Scotland, GAS

G B Bailey 1991a

By the end of February 1992, 80% of the 3/4 acre development site in the Pleasance of Falkirk had been excavated. The remainder was not accessible. Six major phases of occupation were noted :

Phase I: Pre-Roman - represented by a curving palisade trench.

Phase II: Roman - three large ditches defended the eastern side of a Roman Fort. The outer ditch was 1.8m deep and 3.0 wide; the middle ditch appeared to have dimensions similar to the middle one. Beyond these was a V-shaped gully, 50cm deep, whose fill produced evidence for wooden stakes suggesting that it was an additional defensive barrier. A butt-end terminated the outer ditch to the S and may indicate the position of a road.

Phase III: Roman - all the ditches were deliberately backfilled by the Romans and timber buldings and roads were constructed over them. A kiln and an oven belong to this period.

Phase IV: Post-Medieval - two furrows, with an average width of 4m and a separation of 2m, ran down the eastern side of the site. Their upper fills contained 17th century tobacco pipes.

Phase V: Victorian - in the 18th century a vast quantity of clay was dumped over the western margin of the site adjacent to Pleasance Lane. Then in 1850 a Victorian villa was constructed and the grounds landscaped by importing a metre of topsoil.

Phase VI: Second World War - during the war the estate was used as a detention centre. The slit trenches dug throughout the grounds disturbed all earlier deposits.

All the Roman pottery was Antonine in date.

Sponsor: Falkirk Museum

G B Bailey 1992.