Excavation

Date April 1965

Event ID 578223

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/578223

Early in 1965 a main drain was cut in the vicinity of the line of the Antonine Wall (Macdonald 1934) in the low valley just W of Polmont. Although these works cut into the accepted line of the Wall, the contractors did not detect any trace of ditch or wall. The area was further affected by the cutting of a new road, which destroyed a stretch of the supposed line of the Wall in the Beancross/Dollhouse area. A short excavation was undertaken in April 1965 to see if any traces of the Wall could be found in the areas which remained unaffected by the digging of the drain but which would be cut through by the proposed road. Two possible areas were available, which included the supposed line of the Wall, one between Beancross and the Polmont Burn, and the other E of Dollhouse, where the ground begins to rise to Cadger's Brae. In both cases the area available was restricted to a narrow strip between the road and the line of the new drain, the drain having encroached upon the accepted line of the Wall particularly in the eastern of the two areas. In both areas trenches were cut across the available space, but no trace whatever was found. The negative nature of the results was especially clear in the western area, where a trench 2 m deep was cut right across the line of the Wall as shown on the OS map; the section here was consistently barren of structural traces, and the cut went down into quite clean heavy clay. Although no positive conclusions can be drawn from these results, it might be regarded as a distinct possibility that the accepted line of the Antonine Wall is not entirely accurate in the stretch between Polmont hill and Mumrills.

McCord, N. & Breeze, D.

Macdonald 1934