Excavation

Date 1978 - 1979

Event ID 572652

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/572652

NS 977 803.

Following discoveries of Roman pottery by Cumbernauld Hist Soc, excavation in 1978 and 1979 revealed the remains of a fortlet attached to the Antonine Wall. It measures internally c18m E-W by c21m within a plough damaged, 3.0m wide, stone-based rampart. This was best preserved at the N gate and NE corner and it was bonded with the Wall. The upper ramparts of fortlet and Wall, of earth revetted by turf cheeks, were also of one build. The N gate was 3.5m wide with a rammed pebble road running through it; a single post-hole was located on its W side. Towards the E side was a stone culvert, some capstones of which remained in position. There was at least one defensive ditch, 1.8m wide and 70cm deep, located only on the S side; the berm here was c 9.5m wide.

L J F Keppie and J J Walker 1979; R Goodburn 1979.

The seventh fortlet (see also NS98SE 15 and NS57SW 50) to be discovered on the Antonine Wall was located and examined and was very similar to that at Seabegs (NS87NW 10). The upper ramparts of the fortlet and the Wall, of earth revetted by turf cheeks, were also built of one.

R Goodburn 1979.

Subsequent trial excavations in 1978-80 (Keppie and Walker 1981) proved the existence of Kenneil fortlet (NS98SE 15) at this location, attached to the Antonine Wall. A 30m length of the Antonine Wall was systematically stripped of topsoil. A further 11m of the Wall's S kerb only was exposed to the E of this. The Rampart was of normal construction for this sector, consisting of a foundation of dressed kerbstones infilled with rubble, set directly onto the natural clay and gravel and surmounted by a superstructures of brown-red clay loam revetted with turf or clay cheeks (see also Robertson, Scott and Keppie 1975). The Wall varied from 4.2m to 4.3m in width over the excavated length. Individual kerbstones, though widely varied in size, averaged 0.4m long at the exposed face, sitting 0.2m proud of the subsoil. There was a distinct lateral variation in the size and composition of the material used in the core (i.e. rubble fill consisted of large angular sandstone slabs to the W of the north gate and small boulders E of the gate), which indicates that it was derived from a number of different sources. Also a broken quern stone of native form was incorporated into the rubble core. There was no break in the stonework between the Antonine Wall and the E rampart of the fortlet. However, within the base of the Wall, there was an alignment of stones running at right angles from the N kerb towards the centre of the fortlet rampart on line with the S kerb of the Antonine Wall. The stones were arranged to form a fair or regular face along their western edge. This may indicate demarcation lines where there was a change in work gangs, also paralleled at other excavations (Keppie and Breeze 1981). Survival of the earth and turf or clay superstructure was fragmentary. E of the north gate, up to 0.4m of the superstructure survived, though slumping and disturbances had been severe. Finds sealed by the collapse superstructure of the Wall include quantities of Black-burnished ware and two amphora rims from beyond the N kerb. A quantity of butchered cattle bone and a decorated bronze harness strap junction were found in the disturbed material in the interior.

Three small trenches were placed across the S lip of the Ditch. None of these trenches were fully bottomed, excavation stopping when the position of the Ditch edge had been confirmed in each case. There is no sign of a causeway across the Ditch associated with the fortlet's N gateway. The berm between the Wall and Ditch varied from a narrow 4m in the E trench, to 8.4m in the W trench. Similarly as the berm broadens so the Ditch narrows.

G B Bailey and J Cannel 1996

A S Robertson, M Scott and L Keppie 1975; L J F Keppie and D J Breeze 1982; L J F Keppie and J J Walker 1981.