Archaeology Notes

Event ID 679192

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/679192

NN91NW 2 9319 1852

The buried remains of a Roman signal station were found in March 1901, in the course of sinking a pit for a water tank on the farm of Raith. The site is 2 1/4 miles west of NN91NE 4 and NN91NE 300 feet above sea-level, on the highest land for five miles round about, but not on a knoll, and 200 yards south of the Roman Road.

Sited by Crawford (OS 6" map annotated by O G S Crawford) from this information to the old Trig. Station 299ft above OD. (NN 9319 1852) and confirmed by Richmond who in 1937 (OS 6" map annotated by I A Richmond, 1937) saw the mound of the tank on the summit.

Four postholes were found at a depth of 3 or 4 feet, set square and 9ft apart. No signs of a ditch or mound were observed but the excavation may have been too limited to disclose them.

A Flavian date is suggested (Rivet 1964).

D Christison 1901; A L F Rivet 1964.

Previous authorities confirmed. There are no traces of this signal station visible on the ground.

Site surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (W D J) 25 May 1967.

The site of the Roman signal station is now occupied by a water tank, which has been set into a pit in the ground and covered by an oval mound 1.8m high.

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG, IF, JRS), 22 November 1995.

The site of the frontier tower was investigated by The Roman Gask Project in 2003. It was found in 1901 as detailed above and a large quantity of decayed wood was located here too. Unusually for the time it was analysed and found to contain willow, hazel and oak, along with a few barley grains. The site has been examined in aerial photographs and one photograph showed a number of other structures, which suggests a previously unsuspected level of complexity on the hilltop. There may be ring ditches, burials, cists and possibly a small Roman temporary camp. There is a possibility that this site had both a frontier tower and fortlet or camp. They most likely would not be contemporary but represent a modification to the frontier at some point, in which a tower was replaced by a fortlet or vice-versa. A geophysical study of the surrounding land found a probable ditch around the tower, where the water tank is now located.

D J Woolliscroft and B Hoffmann 2003.