Archaeology Notes

Event ID 678092

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/678092

NN74NW 1 7340 4665.

(NN 7340 4665) Praetorium (R) (Remains of)

ROMAN CAMP (R) (Site of)

OS 6" map (1901)

The "praetorium" is a medieval moated site consisting of a squarish area surrounded by a bank and a broad, wet ditch.

The "Roman Camp", enclosing 80 acres, may have been imagined from the small bank and ditch running NW from the NW corner and from others on the surrounding plain. There is nothing Roman here and every indication of medieval work, borne out by the discovery of a copper vessel, with a beak, handle, and three feet.

O G S Crawford 1949; T Pennant 1776; W Roy 1793

A small jar or amphora, 4" high, with one of the loop handles broken off, otherwise perfect, found at Fortingall "Roman Camp" site, is in the Smith Institute, Stirling. It is of coarse yellowish clay, covered with blackish paint (Acc No: AQ 4).

Smith Institute 1934

The "preaetorium" is a well-preserved homestead moat situated on a flat river terrace, partly under grass and part overgrown with bracken. It measures overall about 70.0m E-W by 63.5m, with a ditch, 15.0m average width; the latter is now dry except for the S arm which is marshy. The moated area is raised and flat c.1.5m above the surrounding ground level. Some ground disturbance is suggestive of buried wall foundations, but there is much stone clearance both in the moated area and in the moat itself.

The supposition of a "Roman Camp" occupying the field to the W of the moat is probably based on two well-defined river terrace scarps on the S and W sides of the field.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (NKB) 29 September 1975

No change to previous field report.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (MJF) 29 November 1978

This site is listed in an Atlas of Scottish History (McNeill and MacQueen 1996) as a moated site.

Information from RCAHMS (DE) September 1997