Archaeology Notes

Event ID 710506

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/710506

NT05NE 1 05020 59250

(NT 0501 5925) Castle Greg (NAT) Roman Fortlet (R)

OS 6" map (1961)

A one-eighth mark of James VI, 1601, found "at the Roman Camp, Harburn," was donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) in 1853 by J Cochrane, Harburn.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1855

Many coins and other articles of Roman workmanship are said to have been dug up at Castle Greg from time to time. A round hollow near the centre of the fortlet, locally called the Well, but supposed to have been the foundation of a flagstaff, was excavated about 1830, when under a large stone was found a considerable number of Roman coins, including denarii of Vespasian, Domitian, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, indicating a date of about 170 AD. Some of the coins were sold to a goldsmith in Edinburgh, but the remainder were in the possession of the proprietor, Mr Young of Harburn, who presented a complete set of the coins to Charles X of France in 1832.

Further excavations were carried out in 1846 by Mr Cochrane of Harburn, who found fragments of Roman pottery.

H B M'Call 1894

This Roman fortlet is rectangular in plan, with rounded corners, measuring internally between crests 180ft by 152ft. It is surrounded by a well-defined rampart, best preserved at the S end where it is 28ft wide, rising 4ft above the interior, and 7ft above the ditch immediately in front: 7ft away is a second ditch, both ditches being 8 ft wide and 2 1/2 ft deep. They surround the fortlet except in the centre of the E side, where there is a 22ft wide causeway, leading to a 9ft gap in the rampart. Some 28ft N of this entrance is an oval hollow, possibly the site of a hut. Near the centre of the fort is a circular hollow, 12ft in diameter, which contained a well.

When excavated in 1851, fragments of Roman pottery were found; the well was excavated to 11ft without anything being found, but it was said by an old local inhabitant that about 1810, a "bull's hide" filled with silver coins was taken from the well. Macdonald (1918) discounts this story, but quotes the Statistical Account (OSA), stating several coins, on which the Roman eagle was apparent, had been dug up near this fortlet. If this statement is accurate, the coins could have been of Mark Antony, Vespasian, or Titus.

When visited by the OS in 1953 (JLD, 25 February 1953 and FDC, 9 May 1953) this fortlet was found to be as described above, in a fair state of preservation except for a small part of the ditches at the NW and SW angles which had all but vanished. No signs of internal habitation, or of a tutulus, were found. The track of a road could also be made out, running from the entrance in the E, curving NE for some 40.0m, after which it disappeared.

T H Holbert's notes (19, Thomson Drive, Currie, 23 May 1964) mention that there are indications of a track ascending SW towards Castle Greg, and of the exit from the gateway, visible on air photographs (RAF/541/A/ 393:3451, F58/RAF/3544:0197).

R G Collingwood and I Richmond 1969; RCAHMS 1929, visited 1914; D Wilson 1855; OSA 1796

No change to the previous field report.

Surveyed at 1/10,000.

Visited by OS (MJF) 24 April 1979

Inspection of RCAHMS aerial photographs, shows that the E-facing gate has a 'parrot's beak', indicative of a Flavian date.

S S Frere 1989